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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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https://archive.org/details/presentdayjapanOOtsur 





PRESENT DAY 
JAPAN 


BY 
YUSUKE ‘TSURUMI 







Special Edition Printed for the 
JAPAN SOCIETY 
36 WEsT 44TH STREET 
New York City 


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NEW YORK 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 










Copyright, 1926 
By CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 


Published August, 1926 
Reprinted April, 1927 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 
I. Tue Ovp OrpeR.. ; ; £ g 4 : a 1 
Il. Tue CuHaAutence or New Forces . ‘ , ; LRN Ba: | 
III. InvTevtectuaL CurrRENTS IN JAPAN . s P : JSR: 


IV. Mopern Lirerature— THe Novet, THe Drama, AND Po- 

ETRY . ; : : : ‘ : : ; ine Oe 
V. Mopern Literature (continued) . : : : Str ts: 
VI. Tue Impact or THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW ON 


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PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


LECTURE I 
THE OLp ORDER 


THE honor of an invitation to lecture in this great 
university is one which every Japanese student may 
well covet. In all the colleges and universities of 
Japan the works of Columbia professors are read and 
respected as authorities of the first rank. In every 
branch of public service and private enterprise 
throughout the Japanese Empire are to be found 
Japanese graduates of this institution. When we 
cross the narrow seas to China we find Columbia grad- 
uates among the leaders in every sphere of culture 
also in that ancient and charming nation. Tokyo has 
its Columbia Club which holds periodical meetings and 
gives the right hand of fellowship to Columbia gradu- 
ates who visit the land of the Rising Sun. As I read 
of the rapid expansion of this university under the 
able direction of President Butler, I am led to wonder 
whether our Japanese institutions of higher learning 
may not be absorbed in the extension department of 
Columbia in the near future! 

The spirit of this university, as I understand it, is 
the spirit of challenging directness and scientific in- 
quiry. So I feel under obligation to give you frankly 

1 


2 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


at the very outset the burden of my argument which 
is to be sustained in detail by my series of lectures. 
It is that changes of epochal significance have taken 
place in the Orient during the past four of five years 
—changes which render obsolete the historical trea- 
tises now used in the schools — changes which aug- 
ment the weight of the East in world affairs — changes 
which concern above all the United States and Japan 
as Pacific powers. The dikes of the unchanging East 
have burst, and the floods run under the bridge so 
swiftly that the old observers are breathless; and those 
who formed their judgments on the state of things 
yesterday must revise their opinions to-day. A new 
Asia confronts us. 

Only a few years ago the powers of the world treated 
China as an entity, a body politic, ruled by a sover- 
eign authority with its center at Peking; the hypothe- 
sis was always more or less tenuous, and the policies 
founded upon it never worked with precision. To- 
day, even this fiction is abandoned and all mankind 
waits on the conflict of social forces in China — a con- 
flict that may last a thousand years as in the feudal 
Europe that followed the collapse of Rome, or that 
may be resolved before we are aware by some stroke 
of state foreseen only by the gods of fate. In India, 
where British rule seemed secure for centuries to come, 
a new spirit, a wide-spread unrest, challenges the old 
order — with what hazardous consequences no living 
person can divine. And where is the great Muscovite 
Empire that thundered now at the gates of the Baltic, 
now at the straits, now at the Far Pacific? The rivalry 
of powers in Siberia that vexed the capitals of ten 


THE OLD ORDER 3 


countries a few months ago has been resolved by the 
extension of Soviet authority over that vast region. 
Moscow and Peking have begun to gather up the 
threads of their diplomacy; the silence of the Russian 
Embassy in the legation compound is broken by the 
feverish activities of shrewd men whose profession is 
revolution and whose astuteness is not to be denied. 
And last but not least, Japan is being subjected to 
changes so deep and thoroughgoing that a new era no 
less remarkable and critical than the Restoration of 
1868 is now upon us. There, of course, the old land- 
marks have not been submerged, and superficial ob- 
servers imagine that as it was yesterday, it shall be 
forever; but in fact Japan also bows to the universal 
law of change. Shifting economic forces, the cumula- 
tive clangor of the printing press, the steady drive of 
universal education, the repercussion of changes in for- 
eign countries, and the growing pressure of interests 
in the Pacific — all these things are working out a new 
social and political pattern in Japan. 

It is not given to mortal men to see over the horizon 
of to-morrow, but can we doubt that the flooding and 
ebbing tides of the East will beat along the shores 
of the West? The late President Roosevelt, as you 
know, was fond of saying that ancient civilization 
flourished on the Mediterranean with Rome as the 
strategic center, that modern civilization has grown 
upon the Atlantic, and that the future belongs to the 
Pacific. There seems to be solid substance in that 
contention. The vast Pacific, seventy times the area 
of the Mediterranean, nearly twice the area of the At- 
lantic, stretches under every clime and washes the 


4 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


shores of vast continents inhabited by peoples of every 
race and in every stage of social development. Civili- 
zations old and new, endowed with vast resources and 
immense commercial strength, border upon it. Fast 
steamers can plow their way from Seattle to Yoko- 
hama in less time than it took a Roman captain to sail 
from Gibraltar to Phoenicia, — in one-fourth the time 
consumed by the clipper of Washington’s day in cross- 
ing the Atlantic. The islands of the United States 
stretching off the coast of Alaska are only seven hun- 
dred miles from the boundaries of Japan; they are not 
so far from Japan as Chicago is from New York; swift 
airplanes can make the journey in a few hours in the 
trail of the recent path breakers. That is not all. On 
a clear day the last Formosan outpost of the Japanese 
Empire can be seen with a glass from the nearest 
island of the Philippine group. America’s trade is 
bound to expand in the East; America’s intellectual 
interest is destined to reach out more and more to 
Asia; the achievements of America in science, com- 
merce, and diplomacy will weigh heavily in the Pacific 
balance. The policies, ideals, and measures of America, 
therefore, have a deeper significance for Japan than 
those of all the other nations on the globe combined. 
And what shall we say of Japan? Is it immodest to 
declare that she occupies a strategic position on the 
western shores of the Pacific? Mr. Hughes may an- 
nounce the end of the Lansing-Ishii agreement; the 
geographical and economic facts underlying it remain 
unchanged. At all events, it cannot be denied that 
Japan must sit at every council table where the affairs 
of the Orient are discussed and adjusted. Her policies. 


THE OLD ORDER 5 


ideals, and measures must in turn inevitably affect’ 
America, not so deeply of course, but still vitally. 
Though this is true, I do not find any responsible 
statesman in Japan who believes that any issue arising 
between the two nations cannot be solved by methods 
of conciliation and compromise. I am sure that not 
one views the possibility of war with America in any 
other light than that of horror. On the contrary they 
are grateful to the United States for innumerable serv- 
ices rendered since the opening of our gates by Admiral 
Perry, and they believe that the fundamental purposes 
of the American people are pacific. Yet they are ad- 
mittedly puzzled by the numerous statements of high 
American authorities implying that our relations must 
be strained and that the imminence of war must al- 
ways be uppermost in our minds. For example, last 
June, Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske, in a public state- 
ment to the Secretary of the Navy, warned the United 
States against too much confidence in pacific relations 
with Japan. “I do not mean to suggest,’ he said, 
“that war is even possible; but nevertheless, it may 
be pointed out that the Japanese and the Americans 
have taken attitudes that are irreconcilable, and that 
the Japanese have virtually broken off diplomatic rela- 
tions by giving their ambassador a ‘ vacation’! Such 
attitudes and such acts have usually preceded wars 
though they have not always been followed by wars. 
But even if war is not to come, the American people 
ought to realize that we are unprepared for it if it 
does come.” ‘Then again, only three weeks ago, Mr. 
Wilbur, the Secretary of the Navy, standing on the 
shores of the Pacific, said, in words of painfully obvious 


6 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


implication, “There is nothing so cooling to a hot 
temper as a piece of cold steel.” 

I do not utter a breath of criticism against these 
high authorities for the sentiments they have ex- 
pressed. It would be wholly improper for me to do so 
in this forum. On reading these words, however, I 
am profoundly pained to learn that Americans of such 
undoubted position and character regard my country 
as a standing menace to the security of the United 
States, and I am driven to wonder whether these opin- 
ions represent the solemn judgment of the American 
people. If they do, then there must be a new searching 
of hearts in Japan. 

Is it really inevitable that the two countries should 
glower at each other across the Pacific as did Rome and 
Carthage across the Mediterranean? Frankly I do not 
believe that this must be. Openly and without re- 
serve, I declare my opinion that a war between the 
United States and Japan would be stupid, profitless, 
and calamitous beyond measure, no matter what the 
result might be. By no conceivable calculation could 
either country gather from such a disaster fruits of 
any value comparable to the cost in life and treasure 
and human anguish. It is understanding, concilia- 
tion, and negotiation that we need; not bickering, con- 
troversy and defiance. Therefore, a part of my argu- 
ment —the justification of these lectures—is that 
American scholars, publicists, and journalists should 
give more attention than ever to the current tenden- 
cies in Japanese life. A distinguished trustee of this 
University established in the Imperial University of 
Tokyo a chair in American history and institutions. 


THE OLD ORDER ii 


It is too much to hope that a similar chair in Japanese 
history and institutions may be sometime founded in 
Columbia University —here in the very center of 
American intellectual and economic power? 

It will be my purpose in these lectures to develop 
the argument that I have presented in this introduc- 
tion and to show, if my powers permit, that the study 
of Japanese history and institutions is worthy of your 
labors and your talents — American labors and talents 
bestowed with such unremitting zeal on the history 
and institutions of Europe. It is my intention to dis- 
cuss, in such detail as time will permit, the clash of 
interests and classes in Japan, the tendencies in cur- 
rent opinion, the influences of these forces on foreign 
policies, and, what is of vital importance to friends of 
peace, the influence of foreign relations upon the course 
of Japanese domestic affairs. After all, the drama of 
politics in Japan is not altogether novel; the names, 
the language, the theater, are strange to most Occiden- 
tals; but the plot is as old as Euripides. There are 
forces that work for the dominance of statesmen who 
believe in what are called, in the polite language of 
diplomacy, “ vigorous foreign policies’’; even the late 
Mr. Lodge would hardly take that as a “ veiled threat.” 
There are forces that work for the dominance of states- 
men who would direct the energies of the nation mainly 
to the solution of pressing internal questions; and who 
would pursue, in the sphere of foreign relations, the 
policy of conciliation, codperation, and peace. There 
are in spirit Disraelis and Morleys in Japan. The 
things that are said and done in the homes, lecture 
rooms, and council chambers of America will pro- 


8 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


foundly affect the fortunes of politics in Japan, and 
the politics of Japan will no doubt affect in turn the 
drift of events throughout the world. For this we 
have the high authority of the late President Roose- 
velt, who saw clearly that the East and the West, 
though twain, were forever one, in the strife and inter- 
course of nations. To give the first chapter in the 
Japanese story will be the purpose of this lecture. 

If I may be allowed to anticipate, I will venture 
to say again that throughout this story from the be- 
ginning to the latest cable, the United States of America 
has played an important réle in our development — 
one that is destined to be even more impressive in 
the future. 

Japan is intensely eager to know and understand 
America. Our newspapers and magazines are con- 
stantly publishing articles about this great country, 
while new books about America and Americans are 
published by the dozen every month. 

Never before has American influence in Japan been 
so great as it is to-day. In almost every Tokyo street 
you may read the unmistakable signs. Things Ameri- 
can are everywhere. In the business center of Tokyo 
stand huge office buildings of distinctly American de- 
sign, and you might be made homesick by the sight 
of so many Ford automobiles parked at the curb. 

American influence is still more noticeable in our 
homes, where we have adopted all the conveniences 
and comforts of American life—from Victor phono- 
graphs to ice cream freezers. American motion pic- 
tures have become one of the principal amusements 
of the Japanese people, and although all kissing scenes 


THE OLD ORDER 9 


have been deleted by the police board in the past, I 
understand there is now a new rule which tolerates 
movie kisses lasting no longer than thirty seconds! 

English is spoken throughout Japan, and to some ex- 
tent, what your Mr. H. L. Mencken calls the ‘“ Ameri- 
can language”; but we have improved somewhat on 
your grammar and pronunciation — to the great dis- 
may of visiting Americans. 

I might continue indefinitely enumerating such il- 
lustrations of the Americanization of Japan. My only 
regret is that we are not able to Japanize you Ameri- 
cans, to even the score. The great westward drive of 
your civilization has crossed the American prairies and 
is now reaching the shores of Asia. May I venture to 
say, without displaying any more immodesty than the 
American traveling salesman, that the Japanese civili- 
zation has some things to offer you beside silk and yen 
in exchange for material goods? I do not refer to 
cherry blossoms, prints, and carving, but to things 
more difficult to discover and divine. Business men in 
a hurry to sell us tractors and engines, round-the-world 
trippers whirling through Japan in ten hours, may 
overlook them; but if some will come to us without 
any interest except fine curiosity, and tarry long 
enough, they may discover imponderable values be- 
yond price. 

To give a balanced picture of the background for 
modern Japan is a difficult task even for us Japanese. 
Keenly aware of my own lack of qualifications for this 
task, I made a special effort to prepare myself when 
I accepted your invitation. I spared no effort in dis- 
cussing my task with Japanese whose opinions are 


10 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


more worthy than are my own. Before leaving Japan 
I visited and talked with almost a hundred people, 
leaders in every sphere of our modern life, with whose 
aid I hope to give you a realistic picture of the main 
currents in my country. The choice of materials, of 
course, lay with me; but in selecting them I have tried 
to be a fair and impartial judge. 


II 


I have no intention to attempt to take you through 
the labyrinth of Japanese history, and make you all 
anti-Japanese by hurling at your heads such historical 
names as Saki-no-kampaku-Dajodaijin-Hoshoji-no- 
nyudo-Fujiwara-no-Yorimichi. This is the full name 
of one man, you know, and when I was a boy it was 
considered quite a feat to repeat it all in one breath. 
On the contrary, I shall start by summarizing as 
quickly as possible the fundamental elements of the 
revolution in Japanese society in 1868 which followed 
the opening of the country by the treaty with the 
United States in 1858. The men who made that revo- 
lution, and their sons, are still among the mighty fac- 
tors in Japanese foreign and domestic policies. The 
society which they created remained for half a cen- 
tury “The Old Order of Japan.” 

In the first place, it must be noted that restora- 
tion bears no analogy whatever to the French Revolu- 
tion which was brought about by the new bourgeois 
who, assisted by the common people, imposed a consti- 
tution upon a monarchy. Our “revolution,” if I may 
say so, was the restoration of the Japanese Emperor to 


THE OLD ORDER 11 


full authority by the arms of powerful feudal lords 
and a majority of the samurai, or professional warriors 
of the country. 

In the second place, the Japanese restoration in- 
stead of destroying feudalism, as did the revolution in 
France, was itself an expression of revived feudalism. 
As a great man of letters, the late Fukuchi, said in 
his history: “It was feudalism that gave the Toku- 
gawa family 260 years of peace, and it was feudalism 
that destroyed the family in the end.” In other words, 
the shoguns, the Tokugawas, had been unable to crush 
feudal lords; they ruled by the sword and by the arts 
of political management. In the end the shogunate 
was overthrown by a revival of feudalism that wrested 
power from the Tokugawas, and distributed it among 
the great lords, under the sovereignty of Emperor 
Meiji. 

In the third place, feudalism was undermined later 
by the rising power of the nation’s merchants who 
had been growing in prosperity during the Tokugawa 
régime. Moreover, when feudal tenures were finally 
abolished, the landlords received government bonds 
in payment for their rights, and thus, by a strange 
stroke of history, they became capitalists in one quick 
transaction. Thus the mercantile bourgeois and the 
holders of government debentures, instead of being in 
deadly conflict as were the landlords and bourgeois of 
England and France, were drawn together in bonds of 
common economic interest. No profound difference in 
social psychology separates the clipper of government 
coupons from the clipper of industrial coupons. 

In the fourth place, the abolition of feudal tenures. 


12 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


when it was effected, did not, as in many European 
countries, end in an almost complete triumph of a 
free-holding peasantry. On the contrary, the effect 
of the abolition was more like that in England where 
many great landlords continued to hold their estates 
on a rental or crop-sharing basis. So the feudal clans 
that had brought about the restoration continued to 
hold their power, as did the feudal lords of England in 
the age of the Tudors. 

In the fifth place, the main check on the power 
of the great Japanese lords was the Emperor Meiji, 
supported by the affection and desires of his people. 
He saw clearly the danger of that decentralizing and 
disintegrating feudalism which the Germans call “ Zer- 
splitterungswesen.” In his policy, he was supported 
by many wise and far-sighted statesmen who believed 
that a representative system of government was neces- 
sary to offset the power of the great clans. This idea 
was also popular among those who had studied Eng- 
lish and American democracy and were thoroughly im- 
bued with western democratic theories. So among the 
now famous five articles proclaimed by the young 
Emperor on March 14, 1869, was one which declared 
that: “ Deliberative assemblies shall be established 
and all official acts shall be in accord with public 
opinion.” In this article all liberals saw the ringing 
note of the new spirit. It is my own belief that the 
leaders at that time had only the vaguest notions re- 
garding the parliamentary systems of the west. It 
has been said that the article in the Imperial oath 
never contemplated a parliament by people; at all 
events, it gave strength to the faith of the rising liberal 


THE OLD ORDER 13 


group that saw in the adoption of democratic politi- 
cal institutions the hope of the future. During this 
transition, as I shall point out later, many Japanese 
were in Europe and America zealously studying the 
art of self-government. Among them was Prince Iwa- 
kura, who with his able lieutenants, Okubo, Kido, and 
Ito, toured the world, and returned to Japan deeply 
impressed by western progress and firmly convinced 
that Japan’s first need was internal reform. 

In the sixth place, the whole course of the Res- 
toration was deeply influenced by foreign affairs and 
by the education of the new Japanese leaders in the 
high and mystic arts of foreign diplomacy. It must 
be remembered that for 216 years Japan had been 
sealed to foreign nations, that she had devoted her 
energies to the arts of peace, and that she had left far 
behind the age of internal wars and foreign conquests. 
I repeat that this basic fact must not be overlooked 
by those who would understand Japan today and the 
position of those Japanese who do not favor so-called 
“vigorous foreign policies.” It was foreign pressure 
that hastened the overthrow of the shogunate; it was 
the operations of the foreign powers in China and in 
HKastern waters that forced the Japanese, whether 
they liked it or not, to readjust their internal affairs 
and to seek ways and means to avoid the fate of India 
and China. So the course of internal progress in 
Japan, the democratization of Japanese society, could 
not go on without any thought about foreign policies 
and national defense. 

So from the very beginning, the potential Russells, 
Gladstones, and Morleys of Japan have had to work 


14 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


under the thundering guns of the Western powers 
blowing their way to new territories, new empires of 
trade, new spheres of influence. It is not surprising 
that they made little headway. One cannot help ask- 
ing where English democracy would have been if its 
growth had been conditioned by such circumstances. 

I think it will not be necessary for me to apologize 
therefore for devoting some time to post-Restoration 
diplomacy. I hope that you will find this part more in- 
teresting, especially as the government of the United 
States and a number of individual Americans played 
great roles in formulating that diplomacy. 

The remarks I shall make in this connection are 
based upon the researches of Prof. Katsumaru Naka- 
mura, of the historical department of the Imperial 
University of Tokyo, who has kindly permitted me 
to make use of some of his hitherto unpublished ma- 
terials. 

It is important to remember that the foreign policies 
of Japan since the Restoration have not been those of 
a small island empire, isolated from the main current 
of world politics. In reality they have been part and 
parcel of the world’s great political drama. The fall 
of the Tokugawas was by no means the result of mere 
internal disturbances, but was made necessary by two 
outside causes. One cause was the rise of the great 
Pacific Problem; the other was the Monroe Doctrine 
of America. 

The expansion of the European Powers in the Far 
East was rapidly advancing in the middle of the nine- 
teenth century. England and France were approach- 
ing steadily from the South, while the tentacles of the 


THE OLD ORDER 15 


Russian octopus were stretching down hungrily from 
the North. England’s position around Hongkong 
was strengthened enormously by the Nanking Treaty 
which she signed with China at the conclusion of the 
Opium War in 1842; while Russia in 1855 signed the 
Aigun Treaty with the Peking Government and thus 
acquired the vast territory of the Maritime Province. 
France occupied Saigon in 1859 and laid the first stone 
in the foundation of her colonial empire in French 
Indo-China. 

The warships of these three powers had appeared 
even before this time in the peaceful waters surround- 
ing Japan. Russia invaded Japan’s Northern Island 
in 1805, while British battleships intruded into Naga- 
saki in 1808. French ships of war reached the Loochoo 
Islands in 1844. It appeared quite probable that 
Japan, where peace had reigned for three unbroken 
centuries, would soon be the scene of a mighty contest 
between the powers of Europe. 

Had either Russia, coming from the North, or Eng- 
land from the South, been given a free hand in Japan, 
the modern history of the Orient would have been 
vastly different. The object lessons of Persia and 
Siam suggest what might have happened. But at this 
critical moment there arrived on the scene a third 
party —the American battleships under Commodore 
Perry, who dropped anchor at Uraga in 1853. The 
Monroe Doctrine was beginning to spread its benefi- 
cent influence over the diplomacy of Asia. 

The policy enunciated by President Monroe had 
closed the American continents to European aggres- 
sion, and thus had helped turn the eyes of European 


16 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


statesmen towards the Far East for the fulfillment of 
their ambitions. When, however, Russia and England 
and France at last reached Japan, they found them- 
selves once more face to face with the same stone wall 
—the declaration of Monroe with reference to the 
Pacific. 

The Monroe Doctrine had served not only to pro- 
tect America’s eastern shores from Europe but also 
to expedite her own westward expansion. The Louisi- 
ana Purchase, though it preceded the proclamation of 
the Monroe Doctrine, was prompted by the same spirit, 
and it was followed by the annexation of Texas, the 
opening of California and the purchase of Alaska. 
Still America marched westward. 

The tremendous drive of the Slavic race toward the 
East was perhaps the foremost reason that sent Ameri- 
can as well as British battleships to Asiatic waters. 
The potential power of Russia is perhaps one of the 
greatest factors that has determined and will continue 
to determine, the policies of the Pacific Powers. 

John Quincy Adams, about a century ago, spoke of 
the danger of the Pacific’s becoming a Russian lake. 
The concern of the British for the safety of India’s 
northern frontier is well known. The purpose of the 
Monroe Doctrine would be fulfilled only if the Pacific 
coast of America were protected fully against the 
dangers of Slavic expansion. It was the beginning of 
the contest for supremacy in the Pacific —in other 
words, the Pacific Problem. 

Japan in those days scarcely realized the importance 
of her own strategic position in this great game. Only 
America’s timely arrival saved the situation for us, a 


THE OLD ORDER 17 


fact for which we shall be eternally grateful. Amer- 
ica’s presence in the Far East stemmed the tide of 
Kuropean aggression and gave the Japanese reformers 
a brief time to work at putting their house in order. 

Throughout the pre-Restoration period, the danger 
of foreign intervention had given serious concern to the 
leaders in the Imperialist cause. England was ob- 
viously in sympathy with the Satsuma clan and later 
with its ally, the Choshu, while France was even more 
closely associated with the Tokugawas. The young 
leaders of the reform movement were unafraid of the 
Shogun’s power itself but were genuinely alarmed at 
the prospect of France’s rendering assistance to the 
Tokugawas. 

At the suggestion of certain Britishers, the Satsuma 
clan decided to send Hohei Iwashita as a representa- 
tive to the International Exhibition of Paris in 1867. 
The Shogun’s emissaries were headed by his own 
brother, Shimidzu Mimbu-Tayu. The two hostile 
groups, meeting in Paris, took advantage of the oppor- 
tunity to plead their opposing cases before the French 
Government. France, it was then revealed, realized 
that the shogunate was no longer in supreme control 
at home; and the French attitude accordingly became 
more cautious. 

Opinions differ even now regarding the extent of 
the aid the foreign powers were willing to give the 
Opposing parties, but it may be stated safely that 
French sympathy was with the Shogun while the 
British looked favorably upon the Imperialists. A 
French offer of assistance, made to the Shogun and re- 
jected, is a matter of historical record. Some who sat 


18 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


in the Shogun’s councils were in favor of seeking for- 
eign help but the Shogun himself and his best coun- 
cillors were firm in their opposition to this. They were 
concerned less with the immediate problem of with- 
standing the attack of the clans, than with the ulti- 
mate effect of foreign intervention on Japan’s domes- 
tic affairs. The Imperialists also were very cautious 
in considering the possibility of foreign assistance 
against the shogunate. 

The present generation of Japanese are sincerely 
grateful for the wisdom with which their ancestors con- 
ducted this phase of their relations with foreign coun- 
tries. The Tokugawas were willing to lose their fight 
with the clans rather than remain in power with the 
help of foreign powers. The prudence and discretion 
of the contending parties, in striking contrast with the 
revolutionary tactics observed in some neighboring 
countries, enabled Japan to pass the most crucial 
period of the Restoration in safety. 

The new government of Meiji during the first few 
years of its existence had no definite foreign policy. 
The officials were much exercised regarding frontier 
problems, and Japanese claims for possession of the 
Loochoo and Bonin Islands were enforced. It proved 
necessary, on the other hand, to concede Saghalien to 
Russia in exchange for the Kurile Islands. Japan’s 
relations with Korea were anything but satisfactory. 
The sending of a punitive expedition to Korea was 
urged immediately following the Restoration, because 
Korea had failed to reciprocate the courtesy of the new 
Government that had sent an official emissary to re- 
port the change of regime. The surplus energy of the 


THE OLD ORDER 19 


Samurai class, however, had quite as much to do with 
this agitation as the offense taken at Korea’s impolite 
attitude. The episode had no connection whatever 
with the question that later resulted in the Japanese 
annexation of Korea and attracted the attention of all 
the world. 

The diplomacy of the restored Imperial Government 
for half a century revolved about two pivots. In the 
first place, Japan desired the revision of the treaties 
she had signed with the foreign powers in 1858, so that 
she might attain a position of equality among the na- 
tions. This I shall discuss later. In the second place, 
Japan realized the necessity of safeguarding her terri- 
torial integrity by the formulation of a definite Asiatic 
policy. 

With the hope of achieving the first of these pur- 
poses, Prince Iwakura was sent abroad at the head of 
a mission in 1871. The mission was unsuccessful, but 
a curious trick of fate during Iwakura’s absence led 
to the formulation of Japan’s continental policy. This 
policy in definite form came from an American citizen. 

General Le Gendre, a Union officer in the American 
Civil War, after the close of hostilities, was appointed 
American Consul General at Amoy, China. While as- 
signed to this post, he was obliged on one occasion to 
visit Formosa, just across the narrow straits, and con- 
duct negotiations with the chiefs of the aborigines 
there. On his return to Amoy, he sent his Govern- 
ment a dispatch in which he recommended the occupa- 
tion of the island by the American Navy. 

After a period of service at Amoy, General Le Gendre 
was appointed minister to a South American Republic, 


20 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


and on his way to his new post he passed through 
Japan. Being introduced by the American Minister 
to Count Soyeshima, Foreign Minister in the absence 
of Prince Iwakura, General Le Gendre took occasion to 
express his views regarding the policies he thought 
Japan should follow in order to consolidate her posi- 
tion. He impressed upon Soyeshima the menace of 
Russian aggression from the North, and the danger of 
British and French designs in the South. The Ameri- 
can visitor said, in effect, that Japan would be secure 
only if she could formulate a continental policy and 
carry it out before it was too late. He even said that 
it was the duty as well as the right of Japan. 

The policy recommended by General Le Gendre con- 
templated the expansion of Japanese territory to form 
a crescent skirting the Asiatic mainland, and embrac- 
ing both Korea and Formosa, in the North and South 
respectively. He emphasized the great danger which 
lurked in the possibility of Russia occupying Korea, 
and of England or France occupying Formosa, In 
either of these events, he contended, Japan’s security 
would be seriously threatened. Soyeshima was urged 
to make the seizure of both Korea and Formosa funda- 
mental in Japan’s foreign policy; and as precedents for 
such a plan, the American official cited the Louisiana 
Purchase, the annexation of Texas and the acquisition 
of Alaska by the United States: These steps, he 
pointed out, had been made necessary by the Monroe 
Doctrine. 

Count Soyeshima was greatly influenced by General 
Le Gendre’s arguments, which also found high favor 
with Saigo of Satsuma, who had served the Restora- 


THE OLD ORDER 21 


tion cause with such distinction. Since the Imperial 
House had regained its long-lost authority, Saigo had 
withdrawn from the public eye and had found himself 
frequently in disagreement with the policies of the new 
government. Although he was a member of the Cabi- 
net, his opinions frequently were overruled by a major- 
ity of his colleagues. When he heard of the new sug- 
gestion that had come from an American official, he 
was intensely interested and sent his right-hand man, 
Kirino, to Soyeshima to obtain a detailed explanation 
of Le Gendre’s views. The idea fascinated him and 
immediately he began to advocate the military occupa- 
tion of Korea. 

The ambitious program was destined, however, to 
meet with determined opposition from Prince Iwakura, 
who soon returned from his travels with his able lieu- 
tenants, Okubo, Kido, and Ito. The great Minister. 
had been deeply impressed with the progress being 
made in western countries and returned home firmly 
convinced that Japan’s first need was internal reform. 
This difference of opinion culminated in the civil war 
of 1878, in which Saigo attempted vainly to compel the 
adoption of his aggressive views. The Imperial Gov- 
ernment emerged from the brief conflict with its posi- 
tion strengthened rather than otherwise. 

It was just about this time that another American 
assisted in shaping Japan’s foreign policy. General 
Grant, who was touring the world after the expiration 
of his term as President, reached Japan in 1877. The 
adoption of a policy of peace was strongly urged in a 
long and memorable interview between the former 
President and the young Emperor. At the very mo- 


22 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


ment, a war between China and Japan was pending 
over the possession of the Loochoo Islands; but Gen- 
eral Grant explained how wars among Asiatic countries 
could not fail to advance the plans of European coun- 
tries. He explained the example and spirit of the 
Monroe Doctrine and argued that Japan should 
strengthen herself by peaceful means.. These calm 
views did much to influence the statesmen of Meiji in 
formulating their policy. General Grant’s advice was 
followed and the Japanese house was put in order. It 
was only when the Japanese felt fully prepared that 
they acted upon Le Gendre’s policies, acquiring For- 
mosa in 1895 and Korea in 1910. Thus (in the words 
of Professor Nakamura) Japan’s Asiatic policy was 
thoroughly in accord with the suggestions of two Ameri- 
can military men and, to an extent difficult to meas- 
ure, grew out of their advice. In passing, I may add 
that Le Gendre remained a long time in Japan as an 
adviser to the Foreign Office. His writings are found 
in the official library of the Cabinet. 

It is not necessary for me to rehearse before this 
audience the story of the Sino-Japanese War or the 
Russo-Japanese War or to review the foreign policies of 
our own time. Neither do I propose to criticize those 
wars or those policies. I hope that I may venture the 
suggestion that no spokesman of any of the Great 
Powers that have been busy during the past three hun- 
dred years, down to the latest moment, conquering and 
annexing under the banner of imperialism, has any just 
ground for criticizing Japan. A sweeping condemnation 
of imperialism and its works, I understand and I re- 
spect; but the writer who singles out Japan as the sole 


THE OLD ORDER 23 


target of his criticism will receive, and I think deserves, 
no consideration at my hands or the hands of my 
countrymen. But this is no part of the argument 
which I desire to lay before you. I have merely 
sought to show you how vitally foreign affairs have 
reacted upon our domestic politics. I have tried to 
explain how the germ of liberal and representative 
government that sprouted in the early days of the 
Restoration received little nourishment from the revo- 
lution itself. I have endeavored to indicate how it was 
blasted and withered in the storm that broke when in 
the name of defence (and certainly not without justi- 
fication), and following in the wake of the great West- 
ern powers, the leaders of the nation turned their 
energies from domestic reform to “a vigorous foreign 
policy.” 

But in the heyday of the vigorous foreign policies 
of the old order, the unseen hand of fate was busy 
weaving, away from the gaze of the world, a new bro- 
cade for the coming drama of Modern Japan. The 
germ of liberalism which seemed crushed by the strong 
hand of conservatives was quietly sprouting. As 
Spring follows Winter, and Gladstone followed Dis- 
raeli, the Japanese liberals were destined to rise once 
more and valiantly challenge the supremacy of the 
old order. 


LECTURE II 
THE CHALLENGE oF New Forcss 


THERE was a certain vein of radicalism in the move- 
ment that brought about the Restoration of 1868. 
The young enthusiasts of those days dreamed many a 
fantastic dream. Their greatest concern was how to 
avoid the mistake made in 1334 in the restoration of 
Kemmu when the Hojo Shogunate was overthrown, 
only to be succeeded by another of the Ashikagas. To 
prevent this succession, they thought, the only possible 
means was to strengthen the new government against 
the feudal lords by inviting the people to share in gov- 
ernment. Therefore, the people’s restoration was the 
goal of the new restoration. 

During the first few years the policies of the new 
government tended toward a realization of this pro- 
gram. Gradually, however, the same old reaction be- 
gan to set in. It came in the shape of foreign policy 
as was explained in the preceding chapter. The group 
of statesmen who thought Japan’s first duty lay in se- 
curing her political integrity rapidly increased their 
power, and the others who stood for a more radical in- 
ternal reform had to leave the seat of power one after 
another. The radical vein of the new government thus 
steadily faded. Those who left the government natu- 
rally went into the ranks of the opposition. These were 
the men who organized the political parties of Japan. 

24 


THE CHALLENGE OF NEW FORCES 25 


Itagaki organized the Liberal Party, and Okuma the 
Progressive Party. The former party was more under 
the influence of French radicalism of the Rousseau 
school, while the latter drew its inspiration from the 
liberals of England. The former followers of the de- 
feated Tokugawas also joined these parties. News- 
papers were founded to oppose and criticize the activi- 
ties of the government. Okuma started a college, called 
Waseda University, while a noted samurai of Toku- 
gawa affiliation started another, Keio University. 
The liberals and radicals of those days were in- 
trenched in these new quarters and continued their 
fight against the government. The first clash of forces 
came over the question of the proclamation of the con- 
stitution. The government took the thunder off their 
clamor by ordering Ito to draft a new constitution for 
Japan. It was promulgated in 1889 and the Parlia- 
ment opened in 1890. The forces of democracy fought 
the government by this new political weapon, but the 
internal and international situation was against them. 
The conservatives who ruled the country were men of 
no small talents. They were constructive and moder- 
ately progressive. They gave the people prosperity at 
home and security abroad. People preferred the con- 
structive policies of these conservatives to the high- 
sounding ideals of the radicals. There was another 
fundamental reason for the failure of the liberals of 
those days to arouse the enthusiasm of the common 
people; namely, that both the ministerialists and the 
opposition belonged to the same social class. It was 
mainly a case of people who had belonged to the samu- 
rai class in the feudal days carrying on a factional 


26 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


fight for power in the new day. There was no particu- 
lar reason why the opposition should be considered as 
representing the interest of the common people. The 
latter preferred, on the contrary, the sane progress 
under the old order to the wild agitation of the radicals. 

There was another strong weapon that the conserva- 
tives used to bolster up their position. That was the 
educational system of new Japan. The progress of 
modern Japan is due to the success of its educational 
system more than to anything else — particularly to 
its public education. In forty years it diminished the 
percentage of illiteracy to less than five per cent of the 
whole population; the school attendance of the chil- 
dren of school age in 1923 was 99.03 per cent. A highly 
competitive system of examinations was practiced in 
the schools. The best brains were competing to get 
into the government school, as those who stood well in 
examinations were given recognition by the general 
public. At the apex of the whole system were the 
imperial universities. The students all vied with one 
another to reach the top; and once in the university, 
they competed with an intense passion to stand well in 
its examinations. Those who got honors in the exam- 
inations were given state recognition and their future 
careers were assured. Into the mind of the student was 
thus instilled a strong nationalism; and the graduates 
of these government universities went mostly into gov- 
ernment service where, owing to a very strict civil 
service system, everybody had a chance to get recogni- 
tion of his talent. Contrary to the notion accepted 
abroad, Japan is a country where a poor man’s son has 
a fair chance of promotion — due to this strict com- 


THE CHALLENGE OF NEW FORCES OF 


petitive system. No political pull or family connec- 
tion works there. Through the system the conserva- 
tive rulers of the land skillfully skimmed the cream 
of the nation and invited into the government the 
ablest talents who would otherwise have joined the 
opposition. This was the secret of the endurance of 
the old order and the weakness of the liberal opposition. 

The World War changed the whole situation. The 
prosperity that came to Japanese business and indus- 
try during the war created a strong and prosperous 
middle class, which gradually began to agitate for a 
change in politics. From 1916 to 1918 the tide of 
liberalism began to rise. Leaders of liberal] views be- 
came more and more popular. It was also the time 
when the voices of men like Wilson were ringing all 
over the world. The political current of Japan began 
to swell high. In the field of actual politics people de- 
manded more liberal policies. The preponderance of 
the executive branch of the government was challenged 
and the power of the legislative branch began to in- 
crease. The upshot of the whole thing was the demand 
for the extension of the suffrage as a domestic reform 
and for the change of Japan’s continental policy, espe- 
cially in relation to China. In March, 1925, the uni- 
versal manhood suffrage law passed both houses of the 
parliament and ten million new voters were added to 
the old three million. In 1922, Japan decided to fall 
in line with America and return the remaining part of 
the Boxer indemnity, accruing to her, to China. This 
amounts to seventy-three million yen, or thirty-six and 
one-half million dollars gold. In harmony with a pro- 
gram, called “Cultural Work in China,” the whole 


28 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


amount will be used to help advance the civilization of 
China. The first appropriation of 5,350,000 yen was 
granted by the July session of the Parliament of 1924. 
This will be spent in six years for the creation of two 
institutes of research in Peking and Shanghai. The 
one in Peking will be devoted to research in the fields 
of philosophy, literature, and social science ; the one in 
Shanghai to research in the field of natural sciences. 
These institutes are not to be confined to Chinese and 
Japanese scholars, but their doors will be wide open to 
all properly qualified foreigners; their findings are to 
be published in Western languages. Japan has also de- 
clared on every occasion her intention to keep aloof 
from any policy of intervention in Chinese domestic 
affairs. 

Thus the economic changes that began to take place 
in Japan in recent years have already changed her in- 
ternal and international policies. The vigorous foreign 
policy adopted at the early stage of the new regime is 
fast being modified. The rising tide of liberalism 1s 
making a steady advance on the citadels of conserva- 
tism and the strong nationalistic policy is being toned 
down. The reason why liberalism failed in the early 
days was because it lacked the sympathy of the com- 
mon people. This time it sprang from the conscious- 
ness of the people and was not the slogan of a few poli- 
ticians. How this liberal spirit was being formulated 
in the field of thought will be discussed in the next 
chapter. 

When the tide of liberalism was rising in Japan, an- 
other great change was following close at its heels. 
It was the sudden rise of the power of labor. The 





THE CHALLENGE OF NEW FORCES 29 


business boom that came to Japan after 1915, the sec- 
ond year of the Great War, sent wages soaring to the 
sky, or at least so it seemed to the long-underpaid 
Japanese labor. With the increase of wages came the 
consciousness of power. A labor movement began to 
figure highly in Japanese public life. Since the rise of 
the power of labor was sudden, it lacked leaders at 
first from its own ranks. Naturally, students of labor 
problems, men of socialistic affiliations, assumed direc- 
tion of the labor movement. Now socialism had an un- 
fortunate history in Japan. In 1910 socialists were in- 
volved in a plot against the Imperial Family and were 
strictly prohibited from propaganda. They lived in 
obscurity. In the heyday of the labor movement they 
suddenly came out of their life of hibernation into open 
daylight. The Russian Revolution of 1917 stimulated 
the interest of young Japan and adherents of socialism 
swelled in numbers. The industrial workers gradually 
came under its spell. From 1917 on, Japan began to 
witness a great number of sensational strikes — mark- 
ing such a change from the solid, compact nation bent 
on the prosecution of a vigorous continental policy. 
From 1919 to 1922 radical syndicalists were the lead- 
ers of the organized labor of Japan. In 1922, in Sep- 
tember, the national conference of labor unions was 
won over by the leaders of communistic affiliations > in 
October, 1923, leadership passed to reform socialists 
somewhat like those of the British labor party. In the 
days of the syndicalistic and communistic ascendency, 
Japanese labor ruled political activities out of their 
program. Their only weapon was direct action. Now 
with the realization of the universal manhood suffrage 


30 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


they are preparing to fight their cause with the new 
political weapon of parliamentary representation. 

A more important phase, in a way, of the Japanese 
labor situation is the agrarian movement. According 
to the census of 1920, 67 per cent of the population of 
Japan lived in rural districts; two thirds of the popu- 
lation was engaged in agriculture. When the boom of 
industry sent the prices of manufactured goods sky- 
ward those of farm produce were slow to follow. That 
made the position of the farmers rather difficult. Good 
days came a little later, it is true, but they did not last 
long. Agricultural conditions became more serious. 
Japan is a hilly country, and the total arable land 
amounts to only 15 per cent of the national area. 
This means that Japan has to support 969 persons by 
one square kilometre of cultivated land, whereas Bel- 
gium has thus to support only 394, Italy 305, Nether- 
lands 273, and England 226. The land in Japan is di- 
vided among small landowners. When the business 
slack came after the war and the cost of living did not 
go down accordingly, the condition of the Japanese 
peasant became impossible to bear. Farming ceased 
to be a paying undertaking. Two-thirds of the Japa- 
nese farmers are tenants who till the leased land of 
others; therefore the Japanese agrarian problem is a 
tenant problem. Violent methods were used by these 
desperate tenants at first, but gradually they began to 
use the more effectual method of an organized move- 
ment. How these tenants are going to move ulti- 
mately in their political and economic agitation cannot 
be foreseen, but it is quite within the limit of reason- 
able speculation to predict that they will not go the 





THE CHALLENGE OF NEW FORCES 31 


way of industrial workers. In the first place, because 
of the nature of their work they are more conservative; 
and secondly, they have been better trained politically. 
The strongholds of the Japanese political parties were 
always in the rural districts and, in consequence, the 
farmers are more used to attaining their ends by politi- 
cal means than are industrial workers. The agrarian 
movement will be a more important factor in deciding 
the political future of Japan, at least in the coming 
twenty or thirty years. In the contest of the liberals 
and socialists for leadership over the newly-emanci- 
pated masses of people, rural districts will hold the 
balance of power and decide the outcome. 

If the economic pressure continues to tighten and 
drives the rural districts of Japan to vote more radical. 
tickets, the political situation will gradually resemble 
that of Great Britain; namely, the clean-cut conflict 
between capital and labor. If, on the other hand, the 
government succeeds in finding an economic solution 
for the people at large and particularly for the agrarian 
labor, the latter will continue to support the construc- 
tive policies of the liberals. The Japanese have a 
curious aversion to extremity. Moderation is the 
virtue we cherish, sometimes to an immoderate degree. 
Frankly admitting the seriousness of the economic con- 
ditions in town and country, I still believe that a way 
will be found to bridge over the difficult period of 
transition. 

In sixty years, Japan has spent the vigor and force 
of the spirit of the Restoration of 1868. We have 
reached a point where the internal and international 
policies are all to be overhauled. The population has 


32 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


increased from thirty to sixty millions in these sixty 
years, and the situation of the whole world has 
changed. Japan now stands at the crossroads. Eco- 
nomically she has no choice. Industrialization is her 
only way forward. Her only concern is how she can 
avoid some of the mistakes committed by other na- 
tions. The strength of the Japanese nation lies in her 
agrarian population. To my mind, a decentralization 
of industries, by which the interdependence of indus- 
tries and agriculture can be worked out, is one of the 
possible solutions of her social plight. 

There is another phase to the future changes of the 
Japanese policies; that is the question whether Japan 
will be driven to a purely Oriental policy and theatre 
of operations, or whether she will be brought forward 
to a closer cooperation with the whole world. The an- 
swer will depend, not on the future development in 
Asiatic politics, but more on the attitude of the West- 
ern nations toward the Eastern races. 


LECTURE III 


INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 
I 


BRoaDLy speaking, there are five schools of ethical 
and religious conviction that are living forces in Japa- 
nese life: Shintoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Bu- 
shido, and, quite recently, Christian teachings. How 
systems acted and reacted on one another, and what 
will be their future course, is a most interesting sub- 
ject for anyone eager to understand the social and 
political development of the East. It will be particu- 
larly interesting to Americans who have sent most of 
the missionaries to Japan, to understand what rdéle 
Christianity is going to play in that country and 
eventually in the whole East. 

In studying the history of the development of ethical 
and religious systems in Japan, the following character- 
istics will attract the attention of a careful student. 
It is these national traits which have functioned in 
the past and will continue to function in the future, 
that will shape the intellectual currents in the first 
instance and the political and social policies of the 
country in the end. 

In the first place, the Japanese people are exceed- 
ingly quick to accept foreign ideas. This receptive 
power, which sharply marks the Japanese from the 
Chinese, has been the source of much sarcasm directed 

33 


34 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


against Japanese by a number of foreign observers. 
They have called it “ imitation ” and in some cases, an 
“ apish mimicry.” Without going into the discussion of 
whether there is any categorical difference between imi- 
tation and originality, I shall content myself with say- 
ing that the real test in the case should be whether the 
receiver ends by contributing something to the great so- 
cial heritage of mankind, or not. This adaptability of 
the Japanese to new ideas has helped them to graft to 
their own stock, branches of different schools of phi- 
losophy and religion that later sent forth flowers of dif- 
ferent fragrances and hues from the original. _ 

The receptive power of the Japanese nation would 
have been of rather little avail in its spiritual develop- 
ment, had it not been accompanied by another trait, 
that is, the power of digestion. This is where casual 
observers have utterly failed to understand Japan. By 
looking at the temples and pagodas in Japan they have 
hastily rushed to the conclusion that Japanese Bud- 
dhism was the same as in China. Then again by notic- 
ing the tall office buildings and noisy automobiles in 
Tokyo, they have written down in their charming im- 
pressions of the East that Japan had been thoroughly 
occidentalized. They did not take the trouble to find 
out that in each of these temples there sat a Japanese 
priest, and that under each of the silk hats there was 
concealed a Japanese head! 

The discrimination and digestion that accompany 
the adoption of new ideas in Japan are to be explained 
by the fact that every new thought encounters great 
resistance at the time of its introduction. This capa- 
city for quick reception and quick opposition, although 


ti 








INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 35 


at first seemingly paradoxical, has helped the progress 
of the Japanese people. Confucianism in the third cen- 
tury, and Buddhism in the sixth century, underwent 
the same process at the time of their introduction. 
This is a very remarkable phenomenon and needs 
some explanation, as it throws a light on Japanese 
psychology and also helps us to divine the future 
course of Christianity in Japan. 

When Buddhism was first introduced into Japan 
from Korea in 552 a.p., it brought about a commotion 
in the minds of the ruling class. From the Emperor 
down to the lowliest retainer, the Japanese were af- 
fected by the novel idea. But gradually there appeared 
among the great ministers in the court a strong resist- 
ance which was not put to an end until after some 
bloodshed. However, the real resistance was not the 
mere outside opposition of the politicians, but was 
rather in the disturbed minds of the thinkers of those 
days. They could not reconcile the ideas of Buddhism 
with the ruling thought of Japan inherited from their 
ancestors. The idea of putting Buddha above all other 
gods was in contradiction to the idea of Shintoism, 
which recognized the Sun Goddess as the supreme 
Guardian Deity of Japan. This was not solved until the 
great priest Gyoki in the eighth century formulated a 
new interpretation of Buddhism by saying that Buddha 
and the Sun Goddess were not different personalities. 
When the Creator appeared in India, she took the form 
of Buddha and there was no innate difference in spirit 
nor teaching. Gyoki thus removed the troublesome 
obstacle, and paved the way for the reconciliation 
of Buddhism and Shintoism, which secured for Bud- 


36 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


dhism unmolested progress in the country. The same 
thing can be said of Confucianism, Taoism, and the 
teachings of other foreign thinkers. It is only half 
a century since Christianity was introduced after a 
long period of suppression. That faith is now passing 
through the same stage in Japan through which other 
teachings have passed; and I very much doubt whether 
Christianity as developed in America and Europe will 
be accepted as such by large numbers of the Japanese. 
The same tenacious resistance is being seen; and Chris- 
tianity, in my opinion, will not make much headway 
in Japan unless its teachers are reconciled to the fact 
that the Japanese will not accept a foreign thought 
without impressing upon it their own stamp. 

The third trait, which is more or less connected 
with the above, is the Japanese love of harmony. I am 
rather inclined to think that the main difference be- 
tween the East and the West springs from their dif- 
ferent attitudes toward harmony. Individual liberty 
has been accentuated in the West and it is undoubtedly 
the foundation of Western progress, while in the East, 
at least in Japan, the foundation of moral ideas has 
been harmony. It is not mere collectivism —it is 
more the love of harmony. Everything in the Uni- 
verse must find itself in perfect harmony with the 
whole. A thing is always valued at the position it 
holds in the whole plan of the Universe. This love of 
harmony always drove the Japanese to an attempt to 
connect each new thought with the ideas already ac- 
cepted. Confucianism had to fit in with the indigenous 
thought of Shintoism; and Buddhism again had to be 
reconciled with the two systems of thought that existed 





INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN SL 


there. This tendency to seek harmony can be found in 
all the great thinkers of Japan. They have not been 
like Protestants and Catholics and Christians and Mo- 
hammedans. Instead of fighting for supremacy and 
trying to stamp out the opposition, Japanese philoso- 
phers and ethical teachers have sought a way to forge 
all different systems of thought into one harmonious 
whole. That tendency is clearly seen in Japan at 
present in the efforts to bring together the leaders of 
three different religions. I dare say that you recently 
read in the newspapers the story of Japanese Shinto, 
Buddhist, and Christian leaders meeting for codpera- 
tion. It doubtless looks very queer to you, but it is 
the national trait of Japan. We do things in our own 
way. 

This quest for harmony among thinkers is the spirit 
of tolerance, and it is the reason why we are not good 
haters. It isa weakness as well as astrength. It tends 
to soften down bold and confident personalities and it 
blurs the sense of distinction. But at the same time, it 
enables us to avoid much of the unnecessary waste that 
comes from fighting over things which are not very 
important. 

We have harmonized all exotic thought with our in- 
digenous idea of Shintoism. Now it remains to be seen 
how the three new ideas that are fermenting in the 
Western world are going to be Japanized and incorpo- 
rated into Japanese thought; I mean, Christianity, De- 
mocracy, and Socialism. 

The fourth outstanding characteristic of the Japa- 
nese is the love of action, or the predominance of the 
theory of action in contradiction to the theory of exist- 


38 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


ence or the pure metaphysical reflection. All the Japa- 
nese ethical systems of thought have the stamp of con- 
duct. A philosophy for a Japanese is not a pure system 
of metaphysical thought, but is a thing that is to be 
translated into daily conduct. Knowledge is not real 
knowledge until you act on it. The philosophy of the 
great teacher, Zinsai Ito (1627-1705), is the most typi- 
cal illustration of the Japanese mode of thinking. He 
glorified action and expounded the theory that the Uni- 
verse exists by and for action. The goal of his action 
was benevolence and justice. Action exists for action 
itself and not for any recognition to be won from others. 
He explained the order of Heaven, declaring that when 
a man believes in the order of Heaven and never loses 
his peace of mind on account of outward honors or 
criticisms, he can be said to have reached the state of 
a sage. To do one’s utmost and leave the result to the 
order of Heaven is a precept that has constituted a 
fundamental ethical idea of the Japanese. The phi- 
losopher Ito in his lifetime had three thousand disci- 
ples; and one of these three thousand was the famous 
Oishi, the head of the forty-seven ronins. 

This Japanese love of action is clearly seen in their 
leaning toward Wan-Yang-Ming’s philosophy, which 
places action above all things; and also in their taking 
Christianity very seriously. In Japan Christianity is 
construed in a very strict sense, and when a man does 
not drink or smoke people will ask him whether he is 
not a Christian. Here is the sign of our belief in the 
theory of conduct. Everything you believe you are 
expected to translate into your daily conduct. 

Another trait of the Japanese is his optimism. Even 


INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 39 


Buddhism with all its quiet pessimism could not 
change this national trait. The philosophy of the 
Japanese nation is optimism. The mild climate, the 
fortunate geographic situation that has spared them 
the misery of a foreign yoke, and the spirit of tolerance, 
which sprang up among them, all tended to make them 
cheerful and optimistic. The joy of life is vibrant 
in their blood and their ethical opinions run along that 
line. This was given the best expression by the phi- 
losopher and the first popular educator of Japan, Yoki- 
ken Kaibara, who lived from 1630 to 1714. 

The Japanese by nature are not good philosophers. 
They are more artistic than scientific, and are not given 
to abstract meditation. Their philosophies of life have 
not culminated in great and complicated systems of 
thought. They tended to become simple and informal. 
The great teacher of Shintoism, Norinaga Motoori 
(born 1730, died 1801), said that in Japan there was 
no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japa- 
nese acted aright if only he consulted his own heart. 
It was not so much any philosophy or system of morals 
that counted among the Japanese, as the fact that they 
could lead contented and peaceful lives as individuals 
and as a nation for many centuries; and they have 
shown a spirit of strong resistance whenever their peace 
of mind and peace of community life have been dis- 
turbed by foreign opinions alien to their mode of life. 
New ideas could find a permanent place only after they 
were adjusted to Japanese life and thus served to 
strengthen and perpetuate the individual and com- 
munity life of the country. 

In this connection I should like to give a brief sketch 


40 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


of the ethical ideas of Motoori, as he is considered by 
many as one of the great teachers whose thought in- 
spired the Restoration of Meiji in 1868. His views are 
also important in giving a clue to the original Japa- 
nese view of life, which served as the ethical founda- 
tion of the country. 

He attributed all the phenomena of AW: world to the 
will of God, and said that the duty of man consisted in 
carrying out the divine will. As for guidance in ascer- 
taining that divine will, he pointed to the sincere heart 
of man given to him by God. } 

Motoori then laid down four cardinal rules of con- 
duct: 


1. To live a peaceful life by contentedly carrying out one’s daily 
duties. 

2. Always to keep purity of heart. 

3. To revere one’s ancestors. 

4. To make the Emperor’s will one’s own will and reverently to 
obey him. 


These precepts are important in the sense that again 
and again they come back with the revival of the na- 
tional spirit. These views are also seen constituting the 
basis for the nationalism of Meiji whch I will explain 
later in this lecture. 


II 


When we consider the moral code of the Japanese na- 
tion, the word Bushido comes into the minds of many. 
We owe the enunciation of this idea for the outside 
world to the great work by Professor Nitobe, whose 
humble disciple I am. There is, therefore, no need on 
my part to dwell on that any more. The thing to which 


INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 41 


I want to call your attention is the fact that whereas 
Bushido furnished a great code of morals for the Bushi 
or warriors who were the aristocracy of those days, 
there were other teachings which furnished codes of 
morals for the masses — for Democracy. 

In my first lecture I referred to the fact that the 
downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate was being pre- 
pared by the changing fabric of society. In the end of 
the shogunate new social forces were rising and chal- 
lenging the supremacy of the samurai or warriors. The 
merchant class, which during three centuries of un- 
broken peace had been gradually accumulating wealth, 
finally menaced the economic system of feudalism 
which rested on landed aristocracy, composed of the 
Bushi or warriors. Along with material wealth, the 
merchant class acquired cultural attainments. And 
this culture of the lower class of people was furnished 
by a number of great teachers who turned their atten- 
tion from teaching warriors to educating the new 
emancipated mass of people. The first popular edu- 
eator, Yokiken Kaibara (1630-1714), expounded the 
difficult Confucian teachings with the plainest of words 
and wrote over a hundred books that went into the 
hands of the poor. Even greater than this was the in- 
fluence of the famous Baigan Ishida (born 1685, died 
1744). He started his career as a clerk in a shop in 
Kyoto, and wound up his life as a great teacher for 
the newly rising Democracy. His teachings were based 
on the three great systems of Shintoism, Buddhism, and 
Confucianism. Those who belonged to this school of 
teaching took particular pains to make it easy to under- 
stand. In sharp contrast to the writing of the teachers 


492 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


of the aristocracy, their style was easy to follow and 
their books spread all over the country. Even now the 
books by these teachers are most interesting reading, 
enlivened as they are by allegories and fables, and 
splashed with genial humour. 

Then again there was another great teacher whose 
power was strongest among peasants. He was called 
a peasant-sage and his teachings are a living force even 
now, not only among peasants but also among intellect- 
uals. The name of the teacher was Sontoku Ninomiya, 
and he lived from 1787 to 1856. His teachings were very 
practical and concrete, and wherever his teachings are 
well observed the peasant class is very well-to-do and 
public-spirited. The present minister of education be- 
longs to this school of thought. 

The way was well paved by these teachers for the 
arrival of a new epoch; and it was no wonder that the 
Japanese people — not only the aristocratic samurai 
but the democratic masses as well — were ready for the 
new adventure in statecraft when the country was 
opened to the world in 1868. 


Il 


When the gate of the great dam was opened after 
the three long centuries, the flood of Western learning 
rushed into the Island Empire with stupendous veloc- 
ity and volume. It looked as though the intellectual 
life of the whole country was to be submerged by oc- 
cidental philosophies. Everybody turned to the new 
ideas; and for the moment Buddhism, Shintoism, and 
Confucianism were all thrown to the winds. 

Gradually, however, the same old resistance to new 


——————e 





INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 43 


ideas began to assert itself. First narrow-minded chau- 
vinism and finally sane, well-balanced criticism began 
to loom up over the inundation of Western thought. 
This reaction culminated in the latter part of the Meiji 
era in the consolidation of a new system of thought, 
that is, the nationalism. The basic principles of Shinto- 
ism — loyalty to the Emperor, the idea of national 
unity and exalted views of the founding of the country 
— were formulated into a new theory of the state with 
the assistance of the newly imported ideas of national- 
ism in the Western sense, particularly the German 
school of thought along the Hegelian philosophy, ideal- 
izing the state. It was systematically taught in schools, 
and through books, speeches, and newspapers. All 
Japanese who were educated in those days bear its mark 
in a very strong degree. Other ideas that did not attune 
to this idea of nationalism were looked upon with sus- 
picion, if not antagonism. It was with this strong na- 
tionalistic spirit that we went into wars with China and 
Russia, and finally into the Great War of 1914-1918. 

But underneath the apparent undisputed supremacy 
of Nationalism, there were other systems of thought 
being prepared quietly but steadily. These empha- 
sized, for instance, the idea of individuality advanced 
by Christian teachings, and the non-resistance theory 
of the Tolstoyan school. The remarkable popularity 
of Russian literature, particularly the writings of Tol- 
stoy, had a great deal of influence with the young men 
of Japan; and unconsciously the way was being paved 
for changing the psychology of the nation. It needed 
only changes in the world of affairs to bring these new 
forces into action. 


44 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


The changes came with the World War. The 
speeches of the statesmen of the allied and associated 
powers were real propaganda for liberalism and democ- 
racy. Liberals at home became bolder and more active. 
Utterances of men like Professor Nitobe and Professor 
Yoshino were stamped by the government with the 
brand of dangerous thoughts; but they kept on increas- 
ing their adherents. The years from 1916 to 1918 were 
marked by a nationwide discussion of liberalism and 
democracy, although Japan was then under the pre- 
miership of the conservative statesman, Terauchi. 
Those who belonged to the old nationalist school 
found it more and more difficult to arouse enthusiasm 
among the people. Many books bearing the title of 
“Democracy” appeared, and newspapers and maga- 
zines were full of articles on the subject. This tendency 
was capitalized by the shrewd Hara who, organizing his 
cabinet in the fall of 1918, posed as the first Commoner 
Premier at the head of a real party government. It 
caught the imagination of the people, and the liberal 
opinion of Japan was solidly behind him. During the 
first half of his administration he really served the 
cause of Liberalism by removing the restrictions on 
press, publication, and speech. His internal and inter- 
national policies were also liberal. But it was not the 
changes in the field of politics that accelerated the on- 
ward march of liberalism in Japan. It was the eco- 
nomic changes, as I stated in my second lecture, that 
created an independent and prosperous middle class. 
But there was another element. That was the rapid 
growth of journalism in those days. Newspapers and 
magazines increased their circulations by leaps and 








INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 45 


bounds. This made them financially stronger, and in 
turn encouraged the growth of a new class of people, 
1e., the independent writers. 

Before the days of the economic prosperity of 1916- 
1919, independent writers in Japan were in a most un- 
enviable position. Even a popular novelist found it 
difficult to keep his body and soul together. Many, in 
fact, died in misery. The situation was so piquantly 
epitomized by the famous Ryoku-u, or the Green Rain, 
in his undying words, ‘“ Why, the pen of a writer is 
one in number, while his chopsticks are two. No won- 
der that he is so hopelessly outnumbered!” The es- 
sayists were in a far worse position than the novelists. 
They could not make a living without some kind of 
salary. 

Now in the heyday of Japanese journalism came 
days of prosperity and power for writers and novelists. 
Their books sold by the thousand and there were con- 
stant and ever-increasing demands for articles. The 
prices of these articles went up by leaps and bounds. 
Writers for the first time found out that they could 
fight two chopsticks with one pen. Now independent 
writers are always very dangerous opponents of con- 
servative rulers. When their bread and butter is se- 
cure beyond the reach of the police and rich employers, 
then they sharpen their pens against the wrongs of 
the existing society. This universal tendency began 
to work among the Japanese writers. They began to 
get bolder and more outspoken. The intellectual cur- 
rents of Japan began to flow swiftly and in swelling 
volume. Nationalism was challenged on its supreme 
throne of immunity. Liberalism and Democracy made 


46 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


a steady advance on the citadel of the conservative 
doctrine of the state and the constitution; and accepted 
historical traditions were put to the severe test of 
searching, scientific criticism. The hundred-page ar- 
ticle of Professor Yoshino on the meaning of Democ- 
racy, which appeared in the New Year’s number of the 
Central Review, a popular magazine, started a great 
discussion among the thinkers of the country. A new 
theory of the state emerged from the controversy, and 
promised to supersede the old one. 

At this juncture, the conservatives woke up one fine 
morning and found still more dangerous foes walking 
into the scene of battle. They were socialism, syn- 
dicalism and anarchism. The growing force of labor 
on one side and the example of the social revolution 
in Russia on the other, strengthened the hands of the 
radical thinkers in Japan; and they came out of their 
long hibernation into the open daylight. They laughed 
at the lukewarm attitude of the liberals and preached 
the doctrine of fire. Extreme ideas are always fas- 
cinating to young men and many of the advocates of 
liberalism were gradually converted to the cause of 
socialism. From 1919 to 1922 the socialistic writers 
had the ears of the nation, and newspapers and maga- 
zines were full of articles on socialism, on Karl Marx, 
on Lenin, and so forth. It led the outside observers to 
wonder whether a social revolution were coming in 
Japan. The thing they overlooked was the strong 
resistance that was bound to come later against all 
these new and radical ideas; and the reaction came with 
the earthquake of 1923. 

The national calamity sobered the minds of Japa- 





INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 47 


nese and they began to look at things from a new 
angle. They realized that in the days of uncertainty 
and suffering after the earthquake, the thing that 
helped them most was not high-sounding ideas but 
hard-headed practical work. They realized also that 
they were greatly reduced in wealth and power, and 
that they could not afford to play with extreme theories 
any more. Then it dawned upon them that the one 
thing that would help them was not the half-digested 
foreign ideas, but the indigenous ethics of the country, 
which had served them through dark and trying days. 

The intellectual currents made another turn. The 
pendulum of opinion was swinging back to a more tra- 
ditional line of thought. It sometimes looked as 
though Japanese thinkers were returning to the same 
old reactionary nationalism. Particularly during the 
first few weeks following the disaster, when there were 
no newspapers and martial law reigned in the dev- 
astated area, the intellectual atmosphere was gloomy 
with the reactionary spirit. 

But with the return of the newspapers, brighter days 
came back. In fact, the press was restored with in- 
creased circulations and increased vigor. The prob- 
lem of reconstruction brought about a new line-up of 
people in two opposing camps. The dismal failure of 
the old type of politician disappointed the people. 
Radicals began to see the need of working with the 
moderate liberals, and the intellectual currents of the 
country began to take on a practical and constructive 
tone. 

The Immigration Act of the United States broke 
upon us at this very moment. It swept the whole coun- 


48 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


try like a hurricane. All the papers were unanimous in 
protesting against it. At first it seemed as though it 
were going to affect only the political sphere. It gradu- 
ally began to go deeper. It made a tremendous im- 
pression on the thinking part of the nation. The dis- 
appointment with the West drove them to turn to 
their old schools of thought for enlightenment. Ori- 
entalism received a new stimulus; and I think I am 
not mistaken in saying that there will rise, with the new 
scientific method of the West, a greater and deeper de- 
sire for the study of Oriental culture. What kind of new 
thought will emerge, nobody is yet in a position to 
predict. 
IV 

The trend of opinion is formulated in many ways. 
But in our modern age the first place of importance 
must be given to newspapers. Now Japanese news- 
papers are in a very strong position. Very few people 
in foreign countries know that Japanese papers are 
next to only American and English papers in their cir- 
culations. The Osaka Mainichi has a daily circulation 
of one million and a quarter; and combined with the 
sister paper, the Tokyo Nichi Nichi under the same 
management enjoys the circulation of two millions. 
The Tokyo Asahi and the Osaka Asahi under the same 
ownership come pretty near the above figure. There 
are a number of other papers that have about half a mil- 
lion readers. As a political power, a business proposi- 
tion, or an intellectual organ, the newspaper holds a 
position not to be lightly considered. I think the day 
will come before long, when the world will take more 
notice of the significance of the Japanese press. 


INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 49 


The number of Japanese papers exceeded eleven 
hundred in 1920; and I think that by a conservative 
estimate, their total circulation must be between six and 
seven millions. So it can safely be said that of the 
eleven million families in Japan, half of them take a 
paper every day. The percentage of illiteracy is very 
small in Japan, possibly under 5% of all the popula- 
tion. You will be surprised at the extent to which the 
papers are read by the laboring class. You will notice 
practically every rickshaw man reading a paper while 
waiting for a customer. It is by the papers that 
Japan’s democracy is being educated and supported. 

Because of their tremendous circulation, Japanese 
newspapers are great business enterprises. The leading 
papers in both Tokyo and Osaka have magnificent 
buildings five to eight stories high, and their annual out- 
lay reaches several millions. The fact that the Tokyo 
Asahi spends as much a year for foreign cables as the 
London Times, will give you an idea of its nature and 
standing. A few years ago a group of people started a 
newspaper in Osaka with two million yen of capital 
and lost all their money within a year and retired. 
Such are the financial risks of great journalism. You 
would also be surprised to learn how much advertising 
Japanese papers secure from American business firms, 
but I am not at liberty to give you the names and the 
amount that is spent. 

Some outstanding features of the Japanese press will 
not be altogether uninteresting: 

In the first place, the major portion of the proceeds 
of the Japanese newspapers is derived from the sale 
of papers and not from the advertisements, which in 


50 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


America constitute 90% of all the income of news- 
papers. The Hochi of Tokyo received 43% of its in- 
come from advertisements in 1922 and the rest from 
the sale of papers. This gives a peculiar feature to the 
papers themselves. It gives them an independence 
from big business men who place advertisements with 
them. This accounts for the peculiar spirit of inde- 
pendence that runs through their columns. They write 
freely about capital, labor, and government, foreign 
governments included. Japanese who spend some time 
in foreign countries deplore the freedom of the Japanese 
press, particularly in regard to the foreign countries. 

Japanese papers, in the second place, differ in 
their size from American and English papers. They 
are mostly eight pages; sometimes they run to fourteen 
pages. They resemble in that respect French papers. 
They are very easily read. But with such a meagre 
amount of space, a little less than half is given to the 
advertisements. 

In the substance of the articles, they are again dif- 
ferent from your papers. They give less attention to 
news and quite a great deal to what we call “ leisure 
articles’; for instance, literature, poetry, long series 
of essays by college professors, explanations of “ Go” 
(Japanese chequers), and Japanese chess. And every 
paper carries from two to three serial novels, running 
from one to twelve months. It is partly due to the 
Japanese love of literature, but there is also a pathetic 
side to it. Owing to the pressing daily needs, most of 
the Japanese people cannot afford to spend evenings in 
delightful movies or automobile rides, and the only 
meagre recreation they can contrive to get is by read- 





INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 51 


ing stories and poems in the dailies after their work 
is done. 

Another aspect of the Japanese press which for- 
eigners fail to notice is the fact that a paper with politi- 
cal affiliations never succeeds in Japan. Chuo, the 
official organ of the Seiyukai, could never succeed in 
gaining a large circulation even during twenty years of 
the party’s ascendency. The circulation of the popular 
paper Mancho, suddenly dropped off when it decided 
to support the Okuma ministry in 1914. Therefore, 
the Japanese papers make it their policy to be cau- 
tiously independent of political parties and the govern- 
ment. They sell better when they are in the opposition. 

The success of the Japanese papers is all the more 
remarkable when we consider the disadvantages 
under which they have struggled. Such handicaps are 
numerous. 

The first handicap is the limitations created by press 
law. It gives the police authorities the power to stop 
the sale of particular copies, and also gives the Home 
Office the right to suppress the publication itself. Al- 
though these powers are not used often, they stand as a 
constant menace to the press. 

In the second place, Japanese papers have to em- 
ploy three times as many reporters as the American 
papers. The reasons are threefold: The imperfect state 
of communication and correspondence, the reluctance 
of the general public to give news, and lastly, the un- 
satisfactory organization of the news agency business. 

Japanese newspapers are greatly burdened by the 
necessity of delivering their papers to the houses of 
nearly all their subscribers. About fifteen million yen 


52 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


is spent by the papers annually for the piecemeal de- 
livery of the papers. 

Then there is the great handicap of the using of 
Chinese characters. We use some ten thousand of 
these for literary and scholarly work. Our written 
language consists of complex Chinese characters, and 
simple Japanese syllabaries of which there are only 
forty-seven. And, until quite recent times, the news- 
papers had to keep at least nine thousand of these 
Chinese characters. They have gradually cut down 
the number, however, and are now using some two 
thousand; but even then the types used by the Hochi 
for twelve pages of paper are seven million while those 
for English and American papers with twenty pages are 
only between 750,000 and 1,000,000. Because of this 
intricate business of using Chinese characters along 
with the Japanese syllabaries the Japanese papers can- 
not use high-speed machines. And yet a paper like 
Hochi prints eleven editions a day. There is now a 
movement in Japan to restrict the number of Chinese 
characters and write mostly with the simple Japanese 
syllabaries. It is proposed to cut them down to six 
hundred. Then the children of Japan will be saved 
all the agony of memorizing five or six thousand char- 
acters, and incidentally the newspapers will cut down 
their expenses. 

In conclusion, I may say that the Japanese news- 
papers are increasing in power, and they will be the 
mainstay of the Japanese liberalism. As they have 
taken particular pains to be independent of the Gov- 
ernment and have espoused the cause of the readers, 
which means the common people, they may be a great 


INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 53 


instrument for bridging over the crucial time of transi- 
tion through which we are now passing. 


V 


Now, en passant, I must touch briefly on the Japa- 
nese magazines, which have some peculiarities of their 
own. We have over four thousand of them excluding 
those published for members only. Some popular 
magazines, and particularly those for ladies, have cir- 
culations somewhere near three hundred thousand. 
We have not a Saturday Evening Post yet, but we have 
many magazines like the Review of Reviews and 
World’s Work. 

One aspect that is rather unique in Japan is the 
popularity of serious and radical magazines. In this 
group fall two magazines which are by far the best in 
Japan, ie., the Reconstruction and the Central Ke- 
view, each of which has a circulation somewhere be- 
tween sixty and seventy thousand. If you study the 
contents of Reconstruction, you will be surprised at 
the great extent of its circulation. Take the August 
number for instance. An article of twenty-five 
pages entitled “ From the Society of Free Acquisition 
to the Society of Capitalistic Exploitation ”’ by a fa- 
mous economist; then thirteen pages on the bi-cameral 
system in legislatures; an article on the artistic phi- 
losophy of Deltai; twenty pages on the “ Reasons for 
the Decay of Civilization” and so on. These are all 
scholarly treatises. Reconstruction is a more radical 
magazine than the New Republic or the Nation. It 
prints in every number at least one article by an emi- 
nent Western writer, like Bertrand Russell, Kautzky, 


54 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


or H.G. Wells. Yet it enjoys a circulation of over sixty 
or seventy thousand. It also prints two to six short 
stories of very high artistic value. 

All the Japanese magazines of first-rate standing 
print long essays by scholars. Their subscribers are 
particularly fond of reading philosophical studies of 
from fifty to one hundred pages. 

Another feature of the high-class magazines is the 
publication of novels and short stories of undoubted 
merit. 

The success of the magazines augments in no small 
degree the increasing influence of independent writers. 
They are, in fact, mostly radical writers, socialistic 
writers being rather more popular because they can 
make bolder assertions than the liberals. 

Still I must conclude by saying that Japan is like 
England and France, and that the dailies are more 
powerful and prosperous than the magazines. 

Now I want to say a few words about publications 
other than periodicals. Books are not so successful in 
Japan as newspapers or magazines. The greatest sale 
on record is perhaps that of “ Human Bullet,” an 
autobiography of a young lieutenant at the siege of 
Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War. It sold 
half a million copies in twenty years. In recent years 
“ Beyond the Death Line,” a story of an earnest social 
worker, sold over two hundred thousand in a few years, 
and the drama entitled “ The Priest and the Disciples ” 
had the same success. But as a rule books do not go 
beyond a few thousand. 


INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 55 


VI 


Whither goes Japan then with all these new intel- 
lectual equipments? People talk about Japan in tran- 
sition; but all nations are passing through a period 
of transition all the time. There is no particular tran- 
sition for Japan at this particular moment. However, 
if we accept that terminology for convenience’s sake we 
can, roughly speaking, say that Japan is going through 
the period of foreign influence into a new one of formu- 
lating and consolidating her own thought. Intellectual 
currents of Japan are taking a new turn in that respect, 
and there are some landmarks to indicate the trend. 

1. The first landmark is the passing of enthusiasm 
for works translated from foreign languages. Japan 
has long been under the influence of translations, and 
the bookshops were long full of the works of American 
and European authors. But now the publishers are 
not very keen to print many translated works. The 
Japanese are turning to their own masters. The sow- 
ing has been done and the people are now preparing 
for the harvesting. 

2. The passing of the age of translations meant the 
coming of the new study of Japan herself. The West 
taught Japan the scientific method of research, which 
she is going to apply to her own culture and the institu- 
tions bequeathed by her ancestors. New researches in 
Japanese history with special reference to politics, so- 
cial changes, economics, literature, ethical thought, and 
all kinds of institutions, are recasting our fundamental 
ideas. We now look at our past with new eyes and 
find that there are some things in the course of our 


56 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


natural development that we had not realized before. 
It also opens a new road for original thinking. 

3. Then changes in the style of language facilitate 
the progress of the new orientation. We are getting 
away from our bondage to the Chinese classics. Our 
style is growing less and less formal; greater liberty is 
given to the free play of one’s thought and imagination. 

It is particularly striking in the case of children and 
young students. Their brains are taxed less with tor- 
tuous cramming in Chinese and Japanese classics as 
well as foreign languages, whereas until a decade ago 
study meant memorizing thousands of Chinese char- 
acters and idioms. The emancipation from stereotyped 
characters has meant the liberation of spirit. The way 
the young children of Japan now write is surprising. 
There is a new note of free thinking untrammeled by 
Chinese idioms. In my student days, which are not 
very far away, our supreme task was to commit to 
memory thousands and thousands of Chinese idiomatic 
expressions used in ancient literature and poems, be- 
cause otherwise we could not write with distinction. 
The free spirit that is manifest in Japanese children 
now, promises a great deal; and I am rather optimistic 
about the future outcome. The Japanese are cut away 
from their moorings to the dead formalism, and real 
free thinking will take place in the Island Empire 
before long. 

4. The rising tide of new Japanism, if I may call it 
so, means less consumption of foreign books. In the 
early days after the Restoration the Japanese students 
used English books as texts for all kinds of study. In 
my days we referred to foreign books for research. 


INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN JAPAN 57 


Now the Japanese student can study any line of work 
without the help of foreign books, with the result that 
foreign languages occupy a smaller place in our educa- 
tion. What will come out of this I do not pretend to 
know. 

The Japanese language was once considered an im- 
possible one for foreigners to learn; but with the use 
of fewer and fewer Chinese characters it will become 
easier. If so, it might not be altogether a dream to 
conceive of the Westerner coming one step forward 
toward us and spending at least one twentieth or one 
fiftieth of his brain power in the study of the Japanese 
language. If there were twenty Americans in New 
York who could read Japanese, the greater part of the 
misunderstanding about Japan would disappear. Then 
they would know that there are a few things in Japan 
besides Mount Fuji and Cherry Blossoms. If they 
could only read a few poems of Japan they would cease 
to think that we are all laundrymen and strawberry 
pickers. Japanese words are very simple and if any 
of you have curiosity enough to take home a few ex- 
amples I shall be delighted to give you some — 


(Ohio — Nevada — Utah) 


The story of the intellectual currents of one’s coun- 
try is never complete without a study of its imagina- 
tive literature. Then what is the modern literature 
of Japan which is forming the minds of the masses 
there? That is the subject I propose to discuss at my 
next lecture. 


LECTURE IV 


Mopern LiteratuRE— THE Novet, THE Drama, 
AND POETRY 


I 


In my last lecture I examined some outstanding traits 
of Japanese intellectual life, and surveyed journalism 
with special reference to its democratic tendencies. In 
this lecture to-day I propose to take up the story where 
I left it, and try to describe the subtler and more inti- 
mate side of Japanese life reflected in the imaginative 
literature of present-day Japan. 

I long wondered why the Japanese were so little 
understood by the outside world. Then it dawned on 
me one day that it was to a great extent due to the 
fact that the more human side of our life was not pre- 
sented to the outside world. We were mostly in touch 
with the great world through the channels of diplo- 
macy, trade, and sometimes warfare. The daily lives 
of the common man and woman who laugh and weep, 
just as their brothers and sisters in the Western world, 
have not been revealed to the latter. Even in the days 
of Romanoff rule, the Russian people had a place in the 
sympathy and affection of Americans. The systems of 
government were a thousand miles apart in those days; 
yet Americans realized that Russian peasants were 
simple-hearted, human creatures, capable of love and 
joy and admiration, as Ruskin would say. And did this 

58 





MODERN LITERATURE 59 


not come about mainly through the popularity of Rus- 
sian literature in America? Through the works of Tol- 
stoy, Turgenev, and Dostoevski, you were led to the 
firesides of Russian people; and you could not help 
liking the simple folk on the great plains of Northern 
Europe. But the contrary has been the case with us. 
Our two countries have stood in intimate, friendly re- 
lationship for a long time; yet the life of no country 
is less understood in America than that of Japan. 

Nothing reveals the life of a people as much as its 
imaginative literature. If only we could present a 
Japanese “ Huckleberry Finn” or a “Kim” to you, 
how Japanese boys would be endeared to the hearts of 
American boys. “Japanese literature must be pre- 
sented to American audiences,” I said to myself, walk- 
ing along Fifth Avenue one autumn morning. Four 
years have passed since then. Nothing gives me 
greater pleasure, therefore, than having the rare privi- 
lege of presenting even a brief review of this very sub- 
ject to such a distinguished audience to-day. 


II 


Art and literature have a peculiar position in Japa- 
nese life. Partly because of our temperament and 
partly by tradition, our daily routine is inseparably 
bound up with literature and art. The tea ceremony 
and flower arrangement occupy a secure place in the 
life of not only the aristocracy, but also the middle 
class. The education of a young woman is never com- 
plete without some lessons in poetry-writing. It is 
not uncommon to find a master of a grocery shop or a 
cobbler sending in his poem in competition for a prize 


60 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


offered by the local paper to which he subscribes. The 
New Year’s number of all Japanese papers has a special 
feature every year. On that day is published the ten 
best poems selected by the poets laureate of Japan, to 
be read in the presence of the Emperor and his Court. 
The subject is given out a few months in advance each 
year, and thousands and thousands of people send in 
their poems. There is no qualification of class or stand- 
ing, not even nationality. In fact, a few years ago 
Mrs. Burnett, an American lady, won the honor. 

It is imaginative literature more than anything else 
that moulds the common opinions of a country. Lit- 
erary criticisms, historical essays, as well as poems, 
novels, and dramas have a great influence in giving 
currency to ideas and direction to popular thinking. 
Moreover, it is the literary people who usually fore- 
shadow coming changes. Japan is no exception to that 
generalrule. In that respect, too, the modern literature 
of Japan is important, because what these poets and 
novelists think to-day, Japan will do to-morrow. 


III 


THe First Periop 


The development of the modern literature of Japan 
since the Restoration of 1868 can be divided into six 
periods. The first period covers the first seventeen 
years from 1868 to 1884. This we can call a dark 
period of the epoch of literary chaos, when the atten- 
tion and energy of the whole nation were concentrated 
on the work of political and economic reconstruction. 
In those years of upheaval and commotion there was 


MODERN LITERATURE 61 


little place for literature. It was the age of the cult 
of the West. We made a frantic effort to catch up with 
the progress of the West after the seclusion of three 
long centuries. Everything Western was welcome. 
Things Eastern were thrown aside, and in some cases 
even destroyed. The same was true with literature. 
Nobody paid any attention to Japanese writings. The 
great literature of the Tokugawa era was buried deep 
in neglect, and translations of Western literature filled 
the book-shelves of the progressives. Political novels 
were in vogue and the works of Lord Lytton and Lord 
Beaconsfield had a wide circulation. A number of 
politicians wrote political fiction that had more popu- 
larity than literary merit. Only three things in the 
realm of the spirit are worthy of mention in this period. 
They are the introduction of English utilitarianism by 
Fukuzawa, the founder of Keio University; the spread 
of Christian teachings by Niijima, the founder of Do- 
shisha University; and the propagation of the radical 
French philosophy by young men like Saionji, who is 
no other than the present serene conservative Genro, 
Prince Saionji. The first half of this period was 
marked by the ascendency of Anglo-Saxon literature, 
while the second half was characterized rather by zeal 
for French, German, and Russian literature. 

Another feature of this epoch must be noted, namely, 
the simplification of the Japanese language itself. The 
ornate classical style of ancient times was superseded 
by the simpler form advocated by Fukuzawa and Na- 
kamura. This, in turn, paved the way for the arrival 
of the second period of greater literary activities. 


62 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


THE SEcoND PERIOD 


The year 1885 was a memorable year for two rea- 
sons. It was in that year that the famous writer, 
Shoyo, wrote his epoch-making essay on “ The Essence 
of a Novel.” As he was a great student of Shakespeare, 
I will call him “ the Shakespearean.” He made clear 
the function of the novel and laid down fundamental 
principles for the writers of Japan in their quest for a 
new form of literary expression. He criticized the 
morality novels of the old school, and laid stress on the 
need of a novelist’s describing, with clear objectivity, 
the human life as such. He followed it up with a novel 
of his own, “ The Life of Contemporary Students,” 
which stirred a commotion among the literary people 
of those days. It opened the eyes of young men to a 
new type of writing; and Japanese literature took on a 
new color from this year. 

It was also this year that gave birth to a society of 
writers called “ Ken-yu-sha” or “The Association of 
Literary Friends,” under the leadership of another 
great novelist, Koyo (or Maple Leaves). It was this 
group of novelists that, for ten years to come, was to 
stand at the forefront of literary activities and prac- 
tically change the whole atmosphere of Japanese lit- 
erature. 

Koyo’s (the Maple Leaves’) great work, ‘The Con- 
fessions of Two Lovers — Two Nuns,” appeared in 1889 
and won him national recognition as one of the greatest 
writers of the day. His many other stories followed 
with equal success. His contribution to the literary 
world was threefold. He started a new school of fiction 
by setting an example in objective description. He 


MODERN LITERATURE 63 


also attracted the attention of the whole nation by 
making his stories especially entertaining, and thus 
created an atmosphere for future novelists. But his 
greatest contribution lay in the creation of a new style 
of prose — brilliant and ornate. He was, in fact, a 
master of our tongue; and by his conscientious and ar- 
tistic skill he changed the style of writing, not only for 
fiction but also for the whole range of literature. His 
strength, however, was his weakness. He became so 
absorbed in style and in the merely interesting phases 
of stories that he neglected sincerity and penetration. 
He and his followers more or less played with their 
novels, and did not rise to the height of truly great 
writers. 

In sharp contrast to Koyo (Maple Leaves) stood 
Rohan (as his greatest work was “ The Pagoda,” I will 
call him “The Author of The Pagoda”). The secret 
of his power was his indomitable idealism. His basic 
philosophy was Buddhism and he was more of a poet 
than a novelist. His place as a great writer was firmly 
established when he published his masterpiece, “The 
Pagoda,” in 1895. It is the story of an architect who 
built a towering pagoda on new principles, in the face 
of tremendous opposition from his colleagues. <A ter- 
rific storm rises on the day of completion and the huge 
structure is put to the severest of tests. The descrip- 
tion of the raging storm and the architect standing at 
the very top of the pagoda ready to die in the ruin of 
his life work if fate so willed it, and the portrayal of the 
ultimate victory of the faith of the artist over the ele- 
ments, are so vividly done that they occupy a lasting 
place in the prose of the past century. 

The author of “ The Pagoda,” however, was not en- 


64 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


tirely free from the weakness of his age. His characters 
were types rather than individuals and his plots gave 
the impression that they were created by his imagina- 
tion, not from the observation of real life. He lacked the 
receptive power of Koyo (Maple Leaves) and unlike 
him could not change his subjects with the changes 
that took place in the outside world. So his erat 
life came quickly to an end. 

Besides these two great novelists there were two 
men of letters who laid the foundation for the new 
literature of Japan. One was Shoyo, the Shakespear- 
ean of whom I have already spoken, and the other was 
Ogai, a famous surgeon who wound up his life as the 
Surgeon General of the Army. As he was a great stu- 
dent of the German writer, Goethe, I will call him 
“ Ogai, the student of Goethe.” Shoyo, the Shake- 
spearean, later became Professor of English Literature 
at Waseda University, and through his classroom have 
passed many of the present prominent writers of Japan. 
These two men were the guiding spirits of Japanese 
literature for more than forty years, and most of the 
progress in modern Japanese literature is due to them 
either directly or indirectly. It was fortunate for 
Japan that these two men differed fundamentally in 
sympathy, temperament, and culture. Shoyo, as I 
have said, was a student of Shakespeare; and his spirit 
was in harmony with Anglo-Saxon culture. He was 
very objective in his thinking and based his ideas on 
facts. He was moderate and well-balanced in style. In 
sharp contrast stood Ogai, the student of Goethe. He 
was devoted to German culture, particularly the writ- 
ings of Goethe, and was fond of basing his arguments 


MODERN LITERATURE 65 


on concepts or theories of life and conduct. He was 
subjective and deductive while Shoyo was objective 
and inductive. 

Their gifts were equally matched. They were both 
essayists, novelists, linguists, critics, dramatists, and 
poets. Their activities in the literary world were very 
long and diversified. 

Ogai, the student of Goethe, commenced his literary 
activities in 1889 by writing three novels, all being the 
recollections of his student days in Germany. His 
earnest personality ran through the stories and this, 
along with his polished style, won him a place of first 
rank in the literary world. But the greatest contri- 
bution he made at this period was the part he played 
in a literary duel with Shoyo, the Shakespearean, on the 
correct attitude and function of a writer. This contro- 
versy infused a new spirit into the literary world, and 
raised many interesting points which were not even 
thought of by the writers of those days. 

But perhaps the greatest achievement of this period, 
next to the novel-writing, was the introduction of a 
new tone in the dramas of Japan. The motive of this 
movement was more moral than artistic, but it revived 
a new interest in the stage and produced good results 
in many directions. In 1893 Shoyo, the Shakespearean, 
opened a new epoch by writing his famous “ Essay on 
Historical Dramas,” in which he laid down his own 
views on how to construct a play. He attacked the old 
dramas of Japan as “illusion plays,” and emphasized 
the need of real plays with real characters. As was 
the case with him always, he followed this theory up 
with a play of his own, entitled “One Leaf of a Pau- 


Bann PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


lownia.” This was a play representing the last days 
of the Toyotomis in the sixteenth century, with the 
Osaka Castle as the scene of action. It marked the 
dawn of a new era for the Japanese drama, even though 
the actual staging of the play had a wait until the fol- 
lowing period. During this period good translations of 
real artistic value appeared. Futabatei Shimei, in a 
sense greater than Koyo, introduced Russian novels 
into Japan and wrote exquisite masterpieces of his 
own, one of which, “ The Adopted Husband,” has been 
translated into English. Historical writings also began 
to flourish at the end of this period. Progress was not 
confined, however, to prose-writing.. There was a 
marked stir among the poets, and young talents made 
courageous efforts to start new movements, emancipat- 
ing poetry from the dead hand of formalism. But 
their hopes were to be realized in the next period by 
the appearance of two great poets. 


IV 
THE TxHiIrp PERIOD 


The ten years that followed the Chinese-Japanese 
War of 1894 were a great period for Modern Japan. 
A new spirit that sprang from the consciousness of 
power permeated the whole nation. Young Japan had 
the first test of her modern equipments and came out 
victorious, flushed with the vigor of a young man in 
his twentieth year. The call of new adventure ran 
through the blood and the note of glory rang in the 
ears. 

Japan found herself. The economic fabric of the 


MODERN LITERATURE 67 


nation was undergoing a change, and new industrialism 
was fast taking root. Her place in the world rose over 
night. The new system of government seemed to be 
safely vindicated after the triumph over the great op- 
ponent. Everything seemed to promise a fair voyage 
ahead. 

The reaction of the material world on the world of 
spirit was immense. The thirty years of zealous im- 
portation of Western culture began to bear fruit. The 
time had come for the Japanese to turn Western cul- 
ture over in their minds, and to inquire resolutely into 
its significance for themselves. 

The first outward sign of a turn of thought appeared 
in the rise of a new nationalism, distinct from the 
chauvinism of the preceding period. The spokesmen of 
this cult urged that the tradition of the past three thou- 
sand years must be respected, and that Western culture 
and foreign religions could serve the people only by 
conforming to traditional Japanism. Side by side with 
this nationalism there rose another ery — a cry for Cos- 
mopolitanism, which laid emphasis on the position of 
Japan in the world. But these were the two different 
expressions of the same thing, the consciousness of a 
new Japan. 

It was no wonder that at this period of military hero- 
ism literature took on a new note of hopefulness and 
individual expansion. 

At the beginning of this period, the young and gifted 
writer, Takayama, wrote glowing essays on the theory 
of the superman expounded by the German philosopher, 
Nietzsche, and extolled the virtues of individualism, the 
merits of the superman, and the beauty and glory of life 


68 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


made manifest in the free expression of human instincts. 
These essays caught the imagination of the whole 
nation. They marked the death knell of the narrow 
moralism, formalism, and conventionalism inherited 
from old times. The spirit of Japan which had been 
waiting so long for emancipation from the bondage to 
feudal moralities, found at last a timely exponent in the 
daring young philosopher. A great stir was created 
among the literary people and a new period of romanti- 
cism was dramatically ushered in. 

There was another and still more substantial reason 
for the prosperity of literature in this period. That 
was the material progress of the country after the war. 
Newspapers began to increase circulations, and innu- 
merable magazines appeared in the market. Demands 
for literary productions increased in great proportion. 

The first effect on imaginative literature appeared 
in the so-called “Concept Novel,’ which tried to in- 
terpret the conflicting theories of life that were grow- 
ing up in the minds of people. This was decidedly a 
step forward from the former period, in that the novel- 
ists were becoming interested in the objective descrip- 
tion of man in society. But the writers of this school 
did not produce any works of permanent value. 

A second effect was to open the door to the novel 
of social criticism, and the first writer of this school 
was &@ young woman of delicate health and constrained 
material circumstances. Her pen name was Ichi-yo or 
“One Leaf.” It fell to her lot to support her aged 
mother and a young sister. She determined to sup- 
port them by her pen. When she was scarcely twenty 
she published her first novel. At the beginning of the 


ae = 





MODERN LITERATURE 69 


period under consideration, she rose to the very top of 
the literary realm by producing works of real genius. 
Exposed to the hardships of a selfish and heedless world 
from her young childhood, her sensitive mind was over- 
whelmed by the sad fate of mankind. In her first 
novels, she revealed a spirit of impassioned revolt — the 
revolt of womankind against the tyranny of society. 
Above all did she resent the unjust treatment meted 
out to women of the lower class. She saw no gleam of 
hope or happiness for the daughters of the poor, and 
the misery and melancholy of their life weighed heavily 
on her spirit. Filled with sympathy for them, she chal- 
lenged society with her fiery pen. Although her works 
were far from perfect in literary form and finish, a new 
note ran through them all. The intense earnest- 
hess and genuine enthusiasm of the great writer were 
stamped on every page. There was nowhere to be 
found a trace of the “ playfulness” that characterized 
the writers of the Koyo or “ Maple Leaves” school. 
In 1895 she wrote her great work, “ Take-Kurabe,” 
and her place in the literary history of Japan was es- 
tablished. 

Her literary activities lasted only four years, for she 
died in 1896 at the age of twenty-four. These four 
short years are divided into two periods; and all her 
stories of enduring power belong to the second period. 
In the works of her last two years, the tone of impas- 
sioned revolt, which was uppermost in the first period, 
was changed into that of quiet resignation. The sad 
destiny of women everywhere, especially in the world 
of the laboring poor, seemed so appalling that it was 
beyond the power of weak mortals to defeat it by rebel- 


70 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


lion. With painful sympathy she then began to draw 
objective pictures of women in poverty. Her style be- 
came less sentimental and artificial. As she was a 
poet by nature, her descriptions of misery were toned 
down with a poetic touch of beauty and restraint. In 
her “Thirteenth Night,” meaning two nights before 
the full moon, there is a famous scene of two lovers 
meeting after years of separation. They had secretly 
loved in their childhood, but an unhappy marriage 
forced on the girl wrecked their lives. The girl was 
bound by law and convention to a rich and selfish hus- 
band. The boy, having squandered all his fortune 
through recklessness and despair, was driven to the ne- 
cessity of pulling a “rickshaw ” for a bare livelihood. 
After many years of separation and sorrow, they meet 
by chance on a moonlight night —the girl as the cus- 
tomer of the laborer. The young man, with a laconic 
simplicity, narrates the story of his life since their sepa- 
ration. The girl, listening with quiet eagerness, recalls 
to her mind the bygone days of secret joy and compares 
them with her present days of misery. Then at a tense 
moment she remembers her stern duty to her aged par- 
ents. The lovers part without a single sign betraying 
their inmost sentiments, and the dark curtain of silence 
is drawn over the pathetic scene. In a simple tale, 
simply told, in language of poetic beauty, the Japa- 
nese spirit of loyalty and unbending endurance is re- 
vealed. 

The greatest work of this gifted authoress, “ Take- 
Kurabe,” which means “ Comparing the Heights,” is 
also a story of a boy and a girl torn asunder by fate. 
The boy is the adopted son of a Buddhist priest serv- 


MODERN LITERATURE 71 


ing a temple near the Yoshiwara, and the girl is an 
adopted daughter of a house in that quarter. He is 
dedicated by his foster father to the religious life, and 
she by a curse of fortune to the gay life of a geisha. Yet 
they grow up through the sweet innocence of childhood 
without knowing what fate had prepared for them. 
The picture of their simple and joyful play is so sin- 
cerely and so beautifully drawn that it shines with liv- 
ing light. Upon a scene of almost holy loveliness steals 
at last the grim shadow of duty and the black curse of 
doom. The boy and girl bow before the decrees as 
the bamboo bows before the storm. He must go away 
from that place forever; and in the night before he goes, 
he leaves before the gate of his dear playmate a little 
pot of flowers. Early in the morning she finds it there. 
There the story abruptly ends, without describing what 
she did or even what she felt. The rest is left to the 
imagination of readers, another example of the fact that 
the essence of Japanese literature is suggestion and not 
expression. 

Ichi-yo had that power so rare among even great ar- 
tists, the power of revealing all that language holds, 
and leaving the immeasurable misery of genuine trag- 
edy to the imagination of those who can walk serenely 
with Buddha or suffer with Jesus in the garden of Geth- 
semane. Thus in the writings of this true genius the 
imaginative literature of Japan made an immense gain. 
It was brought nearer to life. The terrible power of 
restraint was demonstrated in a manner never to be 
forgotten. 

The year 1896, the year in which the pathetic life 
of this gifted woman came to an end, saw the appear- 


ripe PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


ance of a great work by Koyo, the Maple Leaves. He 
had long been a target of criticism and ridicule for not 
producing any really great works, and as he was a sen- 
sitive man he felt it very keenly. Stung by the attacks, 
he started early in 1896 to publish a long novel in a 
Tokyo paper Yomiuri. “Tajo-Takon” or “Endless 
Love, Endless Regrets,” as he called it, was a master- 
piece. It was a story of a disconsolate school teacher 
whose days and nights were filled with memories of 
his departed wife. The author’s success in vividly 
describing individual characters in the story is now con- 
sidered as foreshadowing the coming period of natural- 
ism in Japan. It was universally hailed.as an achieve- 
ment in the field of imaginative literature. 

The next year he began to publish his most popular 
novel “ Konjiki-Yasha ” or “The Demon in Gold Tis- 
sue.” With this novel, perhaps, the prose of the Meiji 
era reached its height. It is a story of a young man 
who is deceived by a woman, and devotes his whole life 
to the accumulation of wealth in order to avenge him- 
self. And he gets his revenge. The story vibrates with 
dramatic interest and the characters described in it 
come to life. It made a sensation in the reading world 
and the praise of the author was on the lips of every- 
body. But as a work of literary value, it was below 
the story he published the year before. He clearly 
went one step down to capture the popularity of his 
contemporaries. He was, however, successful in de- 
scribing Japan in that period. It was the age of ro- 
manticism and people liked stories of unusual events 
and unusual characters. Koyo died in 1903 at the age 
of thirty-six, before he finished his last story. A num- 


OO — 


MODERN LITERATURE 73 


ber of writers attempted to finish this fragment, and 
even now every effort of a popular novelist to write 
a sequel appeals to the popular imagination. Koyo 
(Maple Leaves), with all his short-comings, was cer- 
tainly one of the two or three greatest literary figures 
of the memorable era of Meiji. This period of ro- 
manticism was rather rich in successful novels, but I 
will refrain from confusing you by enumerating too 
many Japanese names. I will say only that the prose 
of modern Japan reached its high water mark in this 
period, as the writers were all bent on producing works 
of unquestioned literary skill. From the point of view 
of public interest they were unusually successful, be- 
cause they turned out highly entertaining stories, thus 
widening the audience for novels. But their strength 
was their weakness. They gradually sank in literary 
value as they sought popularity. This inevitably 
brought about a tremendous reaction in the next period. 
But before we go into the transition in fiction we must 
give a glance at the field of poetry. 

The study of Nietzscheism did not stop with mere 
criticism. The destructive period was always followed 
by a constructive one. The advocates of the super- 
man theory themselves were not content with their 
own ideal. It did not satisfy the human spirit merely 
to glorify the life of natural instincts. So the fol- 
lowers of Nietzsche gradually turned in a new direc- 
tion; and they became more and more religious. The 
gifted young critic, Takayama, cut himself away from 
the doctrines of Nietzscheism and devoted himself to 
the study of Buddhism, to which he had been con- 
verted. The tendency of the time gradually turned 


74 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


that way. Young men grew tired of scepticism and 
wanted to see light through religion. Many religious 
authors appeared, the foremost of whom was Ryosen, 
whose writings were acclaimed by young men. Ro- 
manticism reached its climax with the appearance of 
philosophic and religious writers like Takayama and 
Ryosen. 

The age of romanticism is always the age of poetry, 
and Japan was no exception to the general rule. Po- 
etry in all forms burst forth in this period. 

In the August of 1897, an epoch-making book of 
poetry appeared. The author was a young teacher 
of a middle school in Sendai, a city two hundred miles 
north of Tokyo. For a number of years he had cast 
about for someone willing to publish his work, and at 
last he succeeded in selling all his poems for fifteen 
dollars cash without any royalty on them. He awoke 
one summer morning and found himself famous all 
over the country. The name of Toson, or “A Village 
of Wisterias,’ has become a household name. The 
book went into hundreds of editions and is still sell- 
ing, much to the benefit of the publisher and pub- 
lisher alone. 

The popular form of Japanese verse had long been 
the short poem of either thirty-one or seventeen sylla- 
bles. Toson (A Village of Wisterias) succeeded, by one 
master stroke, in giving Japan a new style of verse, a 
long poem with no limitation on the number of lines. 
In this freer form, the poets sang of the new spirit of 
Young Japan. The long-pent-up ferment among the 
young minds at last found an expression, in vivid, 
beautiful, and novel forms. The genuineness of senti- 


MODERN LITERATURE 15 


ments, the earnestness of the spirit, and the beauty of 
the style, captured the imagination of the whole liter- 
ary world. And there was an air of freedom over it 
all. The poet sang about nature, passionate love, and 
the glory of human endeavor. 

Books by the same author followed in rapid succes- 
sion with equal success, and the new form of poetry 
was firmly established. The sentimentalism of his 
first works was gradually toned down, and his broad 
interests gradually turned toward the dignity and 
beauty of creative labor. The flaming passion of 
youthful fire slowly died down to a deep and serene 
social sympathy. He emerged from the world of 
dreams into the domain of realities, which culminated 
in the production of great novels in the following 
period. 

The spirit of innovation was not confined to the 
field of long poems. The art and form of the short 
poem was destined to undergo a revolution. In August, 
1901, the literary world of Japan was to receive a 
great sensation. A collection of short poems entitled 
“Midare-gami,” or “The Flowing Hair,” was pub- 
lished, and all Japan gasped with admiration. It was 
the work of a young girl of twenty-two, who wrote 
under her real name “ Aki-ko” or “The Child of a 
Gem.” She later married a poet and is now known 
as Madam Yosano. 

While the poems of Toson or “A Village of Wiste- 
rias’’ were under the influence of Western poets like 
Swinburne and Rossetti, the works of Aki-ko or “The 
Child of a Gem” were entirely Japanesque. She 
delved deeply into the classics of Japan and, while 


76 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


giving expression to the spirit of her age, used the old 
forms of her ancestors. Through her blood surged a 
torrent of romanticism and fearless passion. By bold 
lines on the love, tumult, and romance of human life, 
she shocked old-fashioned people and gave an un- 
bounded joy to the young generation. She took im- 
mense delight in slighting the old formalities and 
narrow moralities. Her songs are full of bold denuncia- 
tions of conventionalism. Her songs were soon on the 
lips of thousands. Her descriptive and imaginative 
poems are considered even better than her lyrical 
verses. She was particularly successful in singing 
about the beauty of Kyoto, the ancient capital of 
Japan where, ten centuries ago, centered the golden 
age of Japanese literature. 

She is still living and holds her place at the fore- 
front in the Japanese world of poetry. Her achieve- 
ments have been truly remarkable, particularly when 
we remember that she has found time to write so many 
masterpieces and assume the motherly care of her ten 
children. Moreover, she has also distinguished herself 
in the woman’s movement in Japan, as well as in the 
educational world. 

Before I left Japan last July, I visited her at her 
home and among other things asked her to write a 
few verses for me. By the way, she has written eight 
thousand poems thus far. She took a pen and wrote 
me three, one of which I will try to give in a rough 
translation: 


Into the edifice which humanity 
has been building from 

time immemorial, 

I too drive a nail of gold. 


MODERN LITERATURE Th 


Along with the awakening of the new spirit in poems 
embracing thirty-one syllables, there came another no 
less marked renaissance of Hokku or shorter poems of 
seventeen syllables. It was started by an unusual per- 
sonality, Shiki, or “ A Cuckoo,” who combined in his 
person the qualifications of a great critic and the spirit 
of a creative genius. He started his movement by writ- 
ing on the great poet Basho in 1893 and on Buson in 
1896. His plea was “ write poems of genuine objective 
and descriptive nature!” He commenced his work by 
first destroying the old-fashioned forms, and ended by 
constructing a school of poetry of his own. He and his 
followers practically ruled the whole field of Hokku. 
His influence also extended to the field of prose. His 
plea for pure, objective description untrammeled by 
subjective views, opened a new gate for Japan’s prose 
writers. He thus paved the way for the arrival of 
the period of naturalism. Shiki was most active in 
the years 1898 and 1899. Unhappily, nature did not 
favor him with a strong physique, and he had to spend 
most of his later years in bed, dying in 1902. 

A marked progress was noticed in this period in the 
field of drama. Better dramas of literary value were 
written and staged. But we cannot tarry too long in 
the period of romanticism, as a still more important 
period is coming soon. 


LECTURE V 


Movern LiteraturE — THe Novet, THE Drama, 
AND Portry (Continued) 


V 
THE FourtH PEeErtop 


SOME critics think that the modern literature of 
Japan, in its strict sense, begins with the rise of natu- 
ralism immediately after the Russo-Japanese War of 
1904-1905; and I am inclined to agree with them. 

The ten years that preceded the Russo-Japanese 
War was the age of great expectations. The whole na- 
tion was united in the single motive, and all the energy 
of the people was bent on the attainment of the one 
object. The humiliation of the intervention by Russia, 
Germany, and France, at the end of the Sino-Japanese 
War went deep into the minds of the Japanese. The 
high-handed manner in which those three powers or- 
dered Japan out of Port Arthur, which she had won 
after a hard fight, opened the eyes of the people. They 
realized that they were weak. They realized also that 
another test of might, this time with a European 
Power, was inevitable. The humiliation united the 
whole people. Their life was permeated by the 
thought of that one object. The heroic endeavor on 
which the whole nation was bent gave rise to the 
period of romanticism in literature. 


78 





MODERN LITERATURE 79 


But what was the result of the Russo-Japanese 
War? Did the result justify the preparatory endeavor, 
and the stupendous sacrifices made during the war? 
There were unmistakable signs of disappointment 
throughout the country. There arose a serious doubt 
about the romantic glory of nationalism. In the wake 
of national exhaustion crept in a new spirit, the spirit 
of scientific realism. 

The natural sciences of the West were training the 
minds of the Japanese for analytical and critical enter- 
prises. The scientific spirit craves the truth, the ruth- 
less truth at whatever cost. It mercilessly strips from 
the mind the sentimental veil of romanticism. Japan 
had lived too long in the realm of romanticism, and 
the romantic dream reached the climax in the Russo- 
Japanese War. The scales dropped from her eyes and 
Japan looked at the world with a new understanding. 

The literary people are always ahead of others in 
reading the changing spirit of the times. So it was the 
Japanese writers who first grasped the meaning of the 
scientific age that was dawning upon Japan. The 
whole business, in a nutshell, meant naturalism in lit- 
erature. 

The rise of naturalism is a very significant event: 
not only in the history of literature, but also in the 
whole history of the Japanese people. Young Japan 
emerged from the dreamland of color prints and the 
myth of the Sun Goddess, and stood face to face with 
the naked truth of the world in which she lived. 

The atmosphere that surrounded the Japanese 
seemed entirely unbearable. Romanticism was a broad 
day dream; idealism and religion were sheer sentimen- 


80 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


talism; and the old: moralities were sheer hypocrisy. 
Iiverything was false. It must go. So with deadly 
earnestness, they started to pull down all the existing 
theories and ideas. They were intent on destruction 
and exposition. 

An able writer returned home at this time from his 
study in Europe, and rose at once to the forefront of 
the movement. This writer was Hogetsu, or “To em- 
brace the moon,” who began in 1905 untiring activities 
in both the critical and creative spheres. His promis- 
ing life was later clouded by a love affair with a lead- 
ing actress for whom he wrote a number of plays. His 
unhappy career ended in 1919 by his death from Span- 
ish influenza. A month later, the actress stirred the 
land by committing suicide in a most dramatic fashion. 
But that is not a story with which we are concerned 
here. 

Hogetsu (To embrace the moon) and his friends car- 
ried all Japan before them. Naturalism overran the 
whole country. 

Before we go into the study of literary works of this 
period, let us briefly survey the ground and find out 
the reasons for the change. We can count four main 
causes that were responsible for the new turn in the 
realm of letters. 

The first and the most important cause was the 
ascendency of scientific spirit, owing to the failure of 
romanticism to satisfy the human quest for knowledge 
about life. 

The second was “the sadness of victory” experi- 
enced after the war with Russia. 

The third was the introduction of continental litera- 
ture in place of English. 


MODERN LITERATURE 81 


The fourth was the importation of the philosophy of 
Pragmatism. 

The writer who really ushered in the new period 
was Doppo, or “ A Lone Walker.” He, true to his pen- 
name, was a lone traveler in the vale of life. A man of 
considerable genius and sincerity, he looked at the 
human scene with strange eyes. In an age of ro- 
manticism, he did not hesitate to write about the 
brutal truth and the stark realities of life with a pene- 
trating pen. His works, however, were at first un- 
popular in the age of Koyo (the Maple Leaves), when 
people liked gorgeous style and entertaining stories. 
In 1897 he wrote his story “ Uncle Gen,” but nobody 
paid any attention to him. Then he wrote his monu- 
mental work, “The Field of Musashi” in 1901, but 
still he was unnoticed. Even the famous “ Beef and 
Potatoes” received no recognition in the same year. 
In these dark days of obscurity, he was suffering from 
an unfortunate love affair, which he put down in his 
“ A Chronicle That Does Not Lie,” a work of singular 
insight and transparent sincerity. He was too far 
ahead of the time. 

With the advent of naturalism, however, came his 
days of recognition and triumph. In 1905 his “ Col- 
lection of Short Stories” was received by the public 
with enthusiasm; and from that day on, his sover- 
eignty was unchallenged. He rose at once to the sum- 
mit of Mount Parnassus. But the days of glory did 
not last very long for him. The long years of poverty 
and hardship had undermined his health; and he died 
in 1907, quite a young man of thirty-six. 

Doppo was a born poet. From his childhood he 
looked at the world with an original mind. The thing 


82 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


that impressed him most was the sadness of the life 
of the multitude. He wrote in his “ A Chronicle That 
Does Not Lie,” “It is not difficult to understand the 
meaning of the lives of great men and philosophers. 
They have all had ideals and have run through their 
seven lives filled with great and sublime hopes. By 
looking at their ideals, you can understand the mean- 
ing of their lives. But what can we say of the lives 
of the great multitude of men! What meaning is there 
to their poor, simple annals? We stand simply aghast 
at the tragic sight. Is it not this gloomy truth that has 
driven many wise and good men into pessimism? Yes, 
is this not the origin of religions?” In this vein he 
was constantly thinking of the fate of the masses, 
and so a deep note of melancholy ran through his writ- 
ings. In the end he arrived at the stern fatalism of 
Mark Twain. 

Doppo stood in sharp contrast to Koyo (the Maple 
Leaves) for whom life was pleasure, and literature a 
delight. Koyo was one of the few fortunate people of 
the world who find happiness shining everywhere. 
Doppo (A Lone Walker) grieved over life with the mass 
of humanity. His own mortal life was short and sad, 
but his works of art will last as long as the Japanese 
language endures. 

A few minutes ago I spoke of a poet by the name 
of Toson, or “ A Village of Wisterias,” who in 1898 in- 
troduced a new form of poetry into Japanese literature. 
After a silence of about six years, he came back into 
the scene, this time as a novelist. In 1906 he pub- 
lished a long novel called “ Hakai,” or “The Breaking 
of the Pledge.” As was the case with his first poems, 





MODERN LITERATURE 83 


this story created a sensation in the literary world. 
It was a new novel of naturalism. It was a tale of a 
school teacher who belonged to the class of outcasts. 
He gave a pledge to his father never to reveal his 
origin, as it would mean the end of all his hopes for a 
career and a high position in the world of learning. It 
meant more than that; it meant the loss of a sweet- 
heart dearer than life. He later came under the in- 
fluence of a leader who had valiantly declared his 
origin and faced the persecution that followed the rev- 
elation. The teacher then spent weeks and months 
In agony debating with himself whether to keep or 
break the pledge made to the soul of his departed 
father. The suffering of the man and the hard social 
world of respectability in which he labored to maintain 
a position are realistically described. At the end of the 
story he bravely declares his origin, surrenders every- 
thing dear to him, and leaves his native land forever. 

In this novel, the author exposed to the world a 
painful side of the Japanese life, the existence of a 
social injustice demanding a remedy. It was not only 
realistic; it was beautifully written. The famous 
critic Hogetsu, or “'To embrace the moon,” praised it 
with unreserved admiration, and said, “ This story 
shows us that the Japanese literary world has arrived 
at a turning point. The spirit of the problem novel 
of the modern naturalist writers of Europe has for the 
first time found an equal and worthy expression in our 
world of fiction.” 

In 1908, Toson wrote “ The Spring’’; and in 1910, he 
published “The House,” and firmly established his 
place in Japanese letters. A critic called him the Tur- 


84. PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


genev of Japan. At all events, he resembles the Rus- 
sian novelist in the sense that he combines in himself 
the sensibilities of the poet and the analytical powers 
of the realist. Both described actual life in a plain, 
lucid style and grasped its realities, but always sup- 
plemented this description with the expression of genu- 
ine sentiment. Toson’s style is a model of Japanese 
prose, and I make bold to say that in him the prose of 
the Meiji era reached its highest finish. Asa man, he is 
very simple and modest. Like Anatole France he is a 
painstaking writer; and all his paragraphs, although 
they look very nal at first sight, are in fact chiseled 
with extreme care. 

He went to France during the ee and on his return 
published a novel, “A New Life,” courageously ex- 
posing a mistake in his own past. With that his major 
activities ceased, and he rarely writes now. 

There are a few other authors of no small conse- 
quence who belong to this period. In fact the age 
of naturalism was very rich in works of decided merit. 
The names of Katai, Shusei, and Hakucho must not be 
left unmentioned. These men all turned their search- 
lights on the darker sides of human life and merci- 
lessly exposed them. They were shockingly realistic. 
Customs, habits, and institutions that the writers of 
the past ignored with polite avoidance, they squarely 
faced. “ Description of real life and no artistic style” 
was their slogan. They consciously strove for sim- 
plicity — even for crudity. They ignored the subtle 
moralities and discussed the problems of sex with 
startling frankness. In this they represented a reac- 
tion from the sickly romanticism of the preceding 


MODERN LITERATURE 85 


period. Truth they put before beauty, and then con- 
tended that in life there was more sordidness than high 
delight. So ‘the more sordid, the truer the descrip- 
tion,” became their cry. They also revolted against 
systematic idealism and laid stress on the theory that 
chaos is the natural, the true state of the Universe. 
They therefore left every problem unsolved. Even 
an attempt at a solution of anything seemed to them 
following a delusion and not reality. They ridiculed 
every kind of a positive concept of life and duty, and 
dwelt in what they called “ the world of facts”’ — facts 
with no coordinating relation between them. 

Thus naturalism was a great success in the first stage 
of destruction and exposition. It exposed the weak- 
ness of romanticism and shallow idealism, and exposed 
the hypocrisy of conventional moralities. It drove nar- 
row-minded tradition and many falsehoods from the 
realm of literature. It taught the nation to look at 
things with the fearless eye of scientific research, and 
raised the standard of novel writing from the domain 
of playthings to the plane of serious human endeavor. 

But after ten years of naturalism, Japan began to » 
suffer from an excess of it. It destroyed the past be- 
liefs and idealism but constructed nothing in their 
stead. It emphasized chaos, but human minds aré 
never long happy in chaos. Living in this atmosphere 
of brutal scepticism, people began to pine for a world 
where they could attain some peace of mind. They 
got tired of the everlasting realities and yearned for a 
gleam of light, idealism, and hope. Thus came the in- 
evitable quest for a new idea, and it too bore fruit in 
time. 


86 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


VI 


THE FirtH Prriop 


Naturalism was on the ebb in 1909 and was dead in 
1912, when a new tide of fresh idealism set in; but 
there was a curious feature which should not escape 
our attention, i.e., that in the latter days of natural- 
ism there was an independent current running along- 
side the main stream. Through those days there was 
one great writer and thinker whom the surging tide of 
realism could not submerge. It was Soseki Natsume, 
the George Meredith of Japan. 

He occupied a chair which had been left vacant by 
the death of Lafcadio Hearn, and was quietly teaching 
English at the Imperial University of Tokyo. In 1905 
he began to contribute to a magazine a novel in serial 
form. It had a curious title: “I am a Cat.” It was 
supposed to be the impression on a cat of human life 
around him. It was a detached picture of the con- 
temporary age with a vein of genuine humor running 
throughout the story. It was at the end of the sad 
war with Russia and people were longing for the sound 
of laughter. So the story at once caught the popular 
imagination and the author was no longer a teacher 
but a leading novelist. 

His tale had no particular plot. It had neither be- 
ginning nor end. Every part of it was interesting and 
independent from the others. Readers waited with 
impatience for the appearance of the next issue of the 
magazine; and he was made to continue the series by 
the publisher, apparently against his will. He com- 
plained of it often. I was one of his students. He used 


MODERN LITERATURE 87 


to come to the class and say, “I am going to murder 
the cat one of these days,” and finally he did. All of a 
sudden he made the cat of his famous story drink 
beer from a glass left by the master, drop in a water 
bucket, and sing out in a most hilarious way, revealing 
all sorts of cheerful things he saw in the water. And 
that was the end of the cat. The public was disap- 
pointed, but could not complain about the delightful 
manner in which he killed the cat and ended the story. 

In 1806 he wrote his long novel called ‘“‘ The Pillow 
of Grass,” which is a Japanese idiomatic expression of 
travel. He remarked that the difference between a 
picture and a novel was said to lie in the fact that 
whereas the former had only the space element, the 
latter had the time element as well. And, he con- 
tended, if according to Lessing’s “ Laoko6n,” time can 
be put into a picture, there is no reason why it cannot 
- be suppressed in a novel. So he wrote this novel with- 
out any development through a lapse of time, in other 
words with no time element at all. It was a beauti- 
ful story which, although highly interesting, contains 
no element of development. He puts into it a great 
deal of his philosophy. 

Natsume was a great scholar and a thinker. He had 
a profound knowledge of Chinese classics, and assidu- 
ously studied English literature. He was one of the 
friends of Shiki (The Cuckoo) who revived Hokku or 
shorter poems, and was a poet of that school. During 
his three years’ stay in London, he began to doubt 
whether “literature” meant the same thing in the 
East and the West. He collected necessary data and 
on his return published an essay of over five hundred 


88 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


pages called “On Literature,” in which he explained 
the difference between the conceptions of the two 
civilizations. In illustrating his theory, in a number 
of places, he employed verses in three different lan- 
guages, English, Chinese, and Japanese, and thus 
brought out the difference in sentiment and underly- 
ing concepts. 

With all his knowledge of English literature he was 
entirely Oriental in mentality, taste, and philosophy. 
His basic idea was Buddhism. In the heyday of natu- 
ralism, he was not afraid of professing his own ideal- 
ism. He taunted the exponents of naturalism, saying, 
“They contend that their works deal with fundamen- 
tals alone. But what are the fundamentals? Theirs are 
fundamentals only when viewed in our narrow sphere 
of life and death. If man’s outlook on life is confined 
to that sphere, the realities of the naturalists may in- 
deed be absolute fundamentals. But suppose one . 
could batter down the portals of our visible life and 
death and reach the world beyond it, who can tell 
then whether their so-called ‘fundamentals’ might not 
sink down to the level of secondary affairs? ” 

In his Buddhistic mind he could not conceive the 
life of flesh as the only substantial thing worthy of 
contemplation. In his conception he was a thorough 
Japanese of the old school. He was dramatically op- 
posed to the naturalist theory of life. All through his 
works that antagonism is expressed. He stood like a 
rock of Gibraltar against the beating tide of natural- 
ism, and around him there grew up a group of writers 
who later became the leaders in the school of new 
idealism. 


MODERN LITERATURE 89 


Soseki was very prolific; and in the twelve years of 
his literary activities he wrote over fifteen long novels 
and innumerable short stories and essays. They are all 
masterpieces of Japanese literature and will no doubt 
live forever as true expressions of the culture of Japan 
at the beginning of the twentieth century. 

Soseki’s attitude toward literature was carefully ex- 
plained in a very interesting essay called “ A Loitering 
Taste.” In this, he said, “ Life abounds in all kinds of 
leisure. To comment on the quality of tea, to water 
flowers in the garden, to dally with pictures and sculp- 
tures, or to make a few jokes, these are all little de- 
lights of idle moments in life. There is no reason why 
these also should not be material for literature. The 
loitering taste is the taste for quietly lingering at every 
pleasant or interesting spot as long as possible. It is 
therefore a taste that does not make for rapid develop- 
ment in a story. In other words, it is the taste that 
only a man who is not hurried in his mind can enjoy. 
A man of this way of life, for instance, goes shopping. 
He is sure to tarry on his way. He will stop in front 
of a police box to watch a boy who is delivering a rat 
to a policeman, he will also stop to listen to the tale 
that an unknown braggart is telling his friends. Thus 
the unhurried shopper moves slowly on his way. Toa 
busy man this can never happen. He is out for shop- 
ping, so he must shop with grim determination. When 
the shopping is over, his work is over too. The same is 
true in anovel. If the writer’s whole passion is centered 
on fate and, particularly, the fate of the hero in the 
story, he has no genial ease of mind; and, accordingly, 
there is in his work no art of leisure.” 


90 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


There was some element of true greatness in Soseki. 
He had a reasoned religion and a high moral sense. In 
the age of realistic naturalism, he summoned the young 
generation to a life of truer perspective and nobler 
service. He was a master of arts. His prose in lucidity 
and restrained power was peerless in his time. And 
his humor! It was telling. He was poetic. To read his 
work after the sordid and realistic writings of the natur- 
alist school was like breathing fresh air after a long ride 
in arush-hour subway car. He was particularly strong 
in the minute psychological analysis of characters. AlI- 
though he was compared to George Meredith because of 
the depth of his thought, he wielded far more influence 
on his nation than did Meredith on England, owing to 
his lucidity of style. 

Another phase of the reaction against naturalism, an 
over-emphasis of crude reality — took the form of ex- 
tolling beauty to an exaggerated extent. It was called 
“neo-romanticism ” and tended to epicureanism. The 
works of Kafu who wrote “ A Sneer,” in 1910, and those 
of Tanizaki, who published “Satan,” “'Totoo,’ “A 
Boy,” and others, about the same time, are typical of 
this school. Tanizaki is still a young man and is often 
compared to Oscar Wilde. 

The philosophy of pragmatism was now being re- 
placed in popular favor by the teachings of Bergson 
and Eucken. The literary world of Japan was turning 
from naturalism to idealism. 

In 1910 a new magazine called The White Birch ap- 
peared. It was a monthly edited by a group of stu- 
dents, mostly scions of the aristocracy, whose living was 
secure and who wrote for the love of the art, not for 


MODERN LITERATURE G1 


bread. Nobody paid them much attention at first, but 
their work had a germ that was destined to live and 
grow. They sought in pure disinterestedness for new 
values. They had youth, they had leisure, and they 
had sincerity. A combination of these qualities had 
never failed and they did not now fail. Slowly they 
attracted the attention of the literary world; and by 
1916 they developed a distinct school of novelists, ex- 
ponents of the new idealism. 

When naturalism was spending its force in 1912, the 
young writers of The White Birch gradually gained in 
literary fame. Takero Arishima, the Tolstoyan, one of 
the most prominent among them, caught and held the 
attention of the whole country by his “The Labora- 
tory,” “The Daybreak,” “The Labyrinth,” and other 
stories published in 1916 and 1917. In these early 
novels he wrote about his life in America, where he had 
spent years asastudent. His drama “ Before and After 
Her Death ” is a vivid description of his wife’s death 
and his “To My Young Ones” is a short story ad- 
dressed to his three sons, telling about their mother. 
From 1920 on, he was one of two or three authors who 
swayed the thought of the majority of young people 
in Japan. His novel “A Woman” made perhaps the 
widest appeal. All his novels —more than twenty in 
number — which he published in serial form, sold by 
the thousand, sometimes reaching the high mark of 
sixty or seventy thousand. 

Arishima was an ardent admirer of Walt Whitman, 
and organized a literary society called “The Society 
of the Leaves of Grass.” He also translated Whit- 
man’s poems into Japanese. He was also a great ad- 


92 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


mirer of Tolstoy and liked the great Russian, and wrote 
and talked of the power of love and affection to cure 
the ills of a world sick with strife and bitterness. He, 
like Tolstoy, had immense sympathy for all who la- 
bored in poverty. The fortune he inherited from his 
father became a burden for him, and so he gave it all 
up in 1922. His estate in the Northern island of Hok- 
kaido, he turned over to the tenants with a quiet ges- 
ture of relief. His beautiful house in Tokyo as well 
as his shares in the prosperous N. Y. K. or Japan Mail 
Steamship Company, he decided to give to the work 
of labor education. He himself lived the simple life 
described by Tolstoy in his “ Resurrection.” He was at 
the very summit of his power when his unfortunate 
love affair ended his life in 1923, in a dramatic manner 
that created a commotion in the whole country. He 
was just over forty when he died. His work lives after 
him, feeding the currents of humanitarian idealism in 
an age weary of the sordid realism of the naturalism 
school. 

In the same group with Arishima we may place an- 
other writer who is still at work in the sphere of human 
idealism: namely, Saneatsu Mushakoji. He is under 
forty and is yet in the process of development, so that 
it is too soon to pass a final judgment on him and his 
literary merit. He has written thus far a number of 
novels and short stories. He is particularly fond of 
expressing his ideas in dramatic form. Last year he 
published a long story called “ A Certain Man,” which 
is in fact his autobiography and can be well compared 
with Doppo’s, ‘ A Chronicle That Does Not Lie.” In 
“A Certain Man,” the reader is led frankly and sin- 


MODERN LITERATURE 93 


cerely into the story of the growth and inner struggles 
of an original and philosophic mind. Mushakoji is also 
an exponent of the gospel of love as the best hope for 
the searchers after truth. He is under the spell of 
Tolstoy, Buddha, and Christ. Quotations from these 
teachers, and their interpretations of life, are fre- 
quently met in his novels and dramas. 

About ten years ago he made up his mind to carry 
out his fundamental ideas in a scheme of life, and ac- 
cordingly he started a new village along communistic 
lines. His “new village” attracted the attention of 
the whole country and he is still living there with his 
friends. How his literary genius will develop in this 
fixed form of social economy is an interesting thing to 
watch. | 

In 1916 another spokesman of the new idealism, a 
young man under thirty, wrote a drama called “ The 
Priest and his Disciples.” It at once attracted the at- 
tention of the reading public and went into two hun- 
dred editions in a few years. The author’s name is 
Kurata and his work is a Christian interpretation of 
the life of the famous Buddhist priest, Shinyan. It isa 
fascinating story and gave great stimulus to the ideal- 
istic trend in Japanese literature. There are many 
other writers worth mentioning, but time does not al- 
low me to dwell too long on the latest phase of our 
literary life. 

In conclusion, we may say, what of the future? A 
few years prior to his death, Arishima, the Tolstoyan, 
wrote an article on “ The New Literature of the Pro- 
letariat,’ in which he contended that the conception 
of literature heretofore prevailing has been a bourgeois 


94. PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


conception, and that it is coming to a close with the 
approaching end of the bourgeois rule. Therefore, he 
went on to say, the new literature of the proletariat 
will appear in time and that can be written only by the 
sons and daughters of the proletariat. It followed, he 
continued, that the only thing which a man like him- 
self, born in a bourgeois family, could do was to help 
usher in the new age of proletarian literature. 

Arishima’s declaration of faith as to the future was 
the beginning of a controversy in the literary world. 
Young writers began to attack all the popular novelists, 
on the ground that they were mere bourgeois who had 
no message for the new world of labor about to take 
the place of the old order. Meanwhile Japan waited to 
see these young critics, born and reared in the laboring 
class, prove their theory by producing literature of 
unquestioned artistic value fated to endure. Whether 
they can do it or not, remains for coming days to re- 
veal. For the present, the literary world of Japan is 
ruled by two main schools of writers. One of them 
is the school of new idealism, in its many forms, but 
always benign, humane, and looking to a nobler to- 
morrow. The other is composed of the surviving natu- 
ralists, but they differ from the old artists of that per- 
suasion in that they cannot confine their works to 
crude, descriptive realism, but are impelled by the 
Zeitgeist to reckon with the choices or problems set by 
fate. For the present the gamut seems to have been 
run, or, to use another figure, the pendulum seems 
forced to swing within definite limits. Will some new 
planet, hitherto undreamt of, appear within our ken? 
Who dares make answer? 





LECTURE VI 


THe Impact or THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW 
ON JAPANESE LIFE 


To gather up again the threads of my argument, I 
may briefly summarize my previous lectures. In the 
first place, I showed that the restoration in Japan was 
not a revolution but a triumph of feudal forces, and 
that the germs of liberalism that appeared in that 
epoch were trampled down under two foreign wars 
and vigorous foreign policies. In my second lecture, 
there was outlined the rise of a new liberal movement 
after the outbreak of the Great War in Europe —a 
liberal movement that was fortified by a growing mid- 
dle class, and that found expression in many ways, no- 
tably in a juster policy toward China and Korea and 
the announcement of a manhood suffrage bill. The 
third lecture was devoted to a survey of the labor move- 
ment that swung rapidly at first toward syndicalism 
and violence and then, relieved of many severe police 
restrictions under liberal influences, promised coopera- 
tion with liberal leaders in the interest of domestic re- 
form and international amity. Now I have come to a 
consideration of the so-called “ immigration question,” 
in its relation to the evolution of social forces in Japan 
and their eventual pressure upon the world relations of 
Japan. 

95 


96 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


In order to explain Japanese sentiment on this mat- 
ter, it is necessary to point out that for more than half 
a century Japan has looked upon America as a kind of 
elder brother, both in the development of her domestic 
affairs and in her dealings with other nations. For 
more than half a century Japan has looked to Amer- 
ica for friendly advice and help, and has met at every 
turn good will and material assistance. Let me enu- 
merate some of the great debts which Japan owes to 
America. 

First of all, the educational system of Japan, which 
makes the Japanese nation the only literate nation in 
the Orient, was modelled on the American plan. The 
Japanese minister of education, Viscount Mori, who 
laid the foundations of our system, had been a minis- 
ter to Washington and had learned to admire the pub- 
lic school system of America. On his return, he de- 
voted himself to convincing his countrymen that they 
should follow the example set by your country. More- 
over, in the working out of the plan, the Japanese 
Government had the counsel of an American, David 
Murray, whose name will be celebrated forever in the 
annals of our intellectual life. 

In the next place, Japan owes largely to American 
influence her escape from one of the most deadly 
curses of the Orient; namely, the opium habit. Shortly 
before I left Japan, I had a long talk with a noted 
statesman, now a privy councillor, who told me an 
amazing story about this stroke of good fortune for our 
country. I may use his language: “ We owe a deep debt 
to America, one that we can never forget. In the first 
commercial treaty with America, a provision was in- 





THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW 97 


serted, on American recommendations, prohibiting the 
opium traffic. If that step had not been taken then, it is 
hardly probable that Japan would have been able to 
stop that dreadful traffic. When it was taken, Japan 
had a significant precedent to which she could point in 
her dealings with other foreign countries. But Japan 
narrowly avoided this awful peril. About fifty years 
ago’’— continued the old statesman—“ when Mr. 
Kohei Kanda was leaving his post as governor of Kobe, 
a great banquet was tendered him by the foreign resi- 
dents in that city, and I acted as the translator on that 
occasion. In the course of his speech expressing his 
thanks for the honors accorded to him, Mr. Kanda 
said: ‘We Japanese are deeply indebted to America 
for the suggestion that the prohibition of the opium 
trade be inserted in all treaties with foreign powers. If 
that noble precedent had not been set by America, 
Japan would have been cursed with the opium traffic 
as China has been cursed by it.’ This statement by 
the governor made a tremendous sensation among the 
foreigners present and the citizens of a certain nation- 
ality cried out, No! No! Asa young man,” concluded 
the venerable statesman, “ I was profoundly moved by 
that incident, and I have cherished my gratitude to 
America for her service to us all through the intervening 
years.” Whenever a Japanese gives thanks that his 
country has escaped the ravages of that terrible drug, 
he must remember the services of America more than 
half a century ago. This prohibition of the importation 
of opium is in Article 4, Clause 3, of the first American- 
Japanese Treaty of 1858. 

It is to America also that Japan owes her prison re- 


98 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


form, which did away with so many cruelties of the 
ancient penal system. In the application of humane 
sentiments in this important sphere, Japan is under 
everlasting obligations to Dr. John C. Berry, a Chris- 
tian missionary of the early days. 

Indeed I must say that the debt of Japan to Ameri- 
can missionaries is manifold and heavy. I shall not 
speak of controversial religious questions, for that 
would not be appropriate to this occasion; but it is just 
to record here that American missionaries have made 
significant contributions to the development of every 
phase of humane and liberal movements in Japan — 
to the advancement of social work in all its aspects, 
to the emancipation of Japanese women from ancient 
wrongs, to the improvement of our economic life. If 
you will take the outstanding figures in nearly every 
field of beneficent work in Japan, you will find men 
and women who in their early life came under the 
influence of American missionaries. The first for- 
elgners whom the Japanese took into their homes and 
learned to know intimately were American missionaries 
through whose faces and lives shone the gentle spirit 
of Jesus Christ. Not long ago, when I told an American 
woman that thousands of Japanese early learned to 
think of Christian teachings as the law of American 
life, she shot back at me the reply: “ Well, you had no 
business taking the missionaries so seriously!’ Per- 
haps not, but we did; and that fact entered deeply 
into the psychology of the Japanese people in their 
thinking about America, 

In the field of diplomacy, also, Japan learned to look 
upon America as no hard taskmaster bent upon ob- 


THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW 99 


taining the pound of flesh in every controversy. In the 
more than fifty years of our diplomatic relations, not 
a single angry controversy marred our discussions and 
conclusions. That is not all. America on more than 
one occasion went out of her way to do a generous act 
not required by the amenities followed by the powers 
of the world in general. For example, some years after 
a fine of $3,000,000 was laid upon Japan for the Shi- 
monoseki incident of 1863 by the four foreign powers 
involved, the Congress of the United States returned 
the American share of the indemnity in a magnificent 
gesture of generosity, and the money was used in im- 
proving the harbor of Yokohama. When it looked as 
if certain European powers might intervene in the 
Russo-Japanese War in an unfriendly manner, Presi- 
dent Roosevelt undertook to hold the scales of justice 
even as between the two belligerents. In taking the 
action that he did, he followed all the proper canons of 
neutrality, but at that time fair neutrality was benev- 
olence to Japan. | 

Nor in recent times have our diplomatic relations 
departed in spirit from older precedents. When Japan 
fulfilled an obligation of justice in returning Tsingtao 
to China, the desire for American approval and con- 
tinued American friendship was a powerful element in 
bringing about the surrender of territory bought by 
Japanese blood. When Japan surrendered the Anglo- 
Japanese alliance, entered the Washington Conference, 
and accepted a sixty per cent navy, the desire for 
American friendship was always uppermost in the 
minds of our people. When Japan devoted her re- 
maining share of the Boxer indemnity to educational 


100 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


work in China, she was not oblivious to the American 
example and the effect of her action upon American 
sentiment. Such is the background of our historic 
relations. Such were the sentiments of the Japanese 
people when the sudden crash of the closing door came 
ringing in our ears. 

I come now to the most delicate subject of my lec- 
tures, namely the relation of the recent immigration act 
to the interplay of the social forces in Japan which 
I have just outlined. The task is difficult, and it would 
be easier to close with the usual diplomatic ameni- 
ties. But taking seriously the obligations resting upon 
me here, I feel bound to present to you as accurately 
as I can, without the slightest trace of complaint or 
bitterness, the attitude of those who are working for 
the development of a liberal Japan. 

First of all, let us bring together the salient facts in 
this controversy. When friendly relations were first es- 
tablished between the United States and Japan, the 
gates of America were wide open to immigrants from 
all parts of the world. In 1864, the party of Abraham 
Lincoln called America “the asylum of the oppressed 
of all nations” and declared that immigration “ should 
be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just pol- 
icy.” Capitalists on the western coast, especially the 
railway builders, welcomed Chinese laborers ; and later, 
Japanese began to come across to these hospitable 
shores. The significant fact in this connection is that 
in the early days of our relations, the Japanese people 
grew accustomed to associating friendship with Amer- 
ica and the cordial weleome accorded to J apanese im- 
migrants. 


THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW 101 


When in the course of time, there arose, as the re- 
sult of many forces which it is unprofitable to discuss, 
serious friction on the Pacific Coast, the Government 
of the United States and the Government of Japan en- 
tered into the famous Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, 
by which the latter undertook to restrain the migra- 
tion of Japanese laborers. It has been claimed that the 
said agreement was not a treaty, and had no high con- 
stitutional sanction. Still the Japanese people looked 
upon it as a solemn international understanding; and 
if I am not mistaken, executive agreements are recog- 
nized in government practice and the treatises of pub- 
licists as binding in law and conscience. At all events, 
to use the language of Professor Treat, “the Japanese 
understood that as long as they kept their part of the 
agreement, the United States would not pass an exclu- 
sion law against the Japanese.” ‘This impression was 
confirmed in 1911 when, during the revision of the 
treaty of 1894, the provision declaring the right of the 
United States to regulate the immigration of laborers 
was omitted from the new text, on the understanding 
that the Japanese ambassador again declared the in- 
tention of his Government to maintain with equal 
effectiveness the control that it had been exercising 
over the migration of laborers. Our impression was 
again strengthened when we read in Mr. Roosevelt’s 
Autobiography that the abrogation of the treaty would 
be necessary if the United States ever undertook to 
exercise the right of exclusion. It has been said that 
Mr. Roosevelt was unwise, from the American point 
of view, in making the Gentlemen’s Agreement; and 
that Mr. Taft was equally unwise in negotiating the 


102 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


treaty of 1911. But there they stood, and the people 
of Japan looked upon them as understandings to be 
loyally kept. 

But it has been alleged that Japan did not live up 
honorably to the terms of that Agreement. That was 
a matter of fact to be ascertained by an official inquiry, 
and to the best of my knowledge and belief, neither 
the executive nor the legislative branch of the gOvV- 
ernment of the United States has ever made a scientific 
and searching inquiry into this allegation. Still, the 
passage of the immigration act carried with it the im- 
plication that the Congress of the United States, to 
say the least, suspected the integrity of the Japanese 
Government, as far as the discharge of all obligations 
arising under the Agreement was concerned. It may 
be that Congress entertained no such idea; but the 
methods by which the act was passed, rightly or 
wrongly, gave that impression to Japan. 

It has been said that President Roosevelt had no 
power to bind the Congress of the United States not 
to pass an exclusion act. Nobody in Japan doubts or 
questions the constitutional and legal and sovereign 
right of Congress to enact such a law. It was not a 
question of power, but of action in view of certain cir- 
cumstances and certain outstanding agreements. I 
beg to refer the lawyers to the logic and spirit of Ed- 
mund Burke’s immortal speech on “Conciliation 
with America.” Surely the Japanese people will be 
pardoned if they are unable to appreciate the legal 
argument and are prone to fix their eyes upon the 
Agreement. 

It has been said that the issue at stake, the supreme 


THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW 103 


issue before Congress, was the protection of American 
civilization against a flood of Japanese immigrants. 
With all due respect, I beg to dissent from that con- 
tention. No responsible person in Japan has ever de- 
sired, or now desires, to force upon the United States 
any class of immigrants that was not wanted. No 
intelligent person in Japan looked upon the United 
States as an outlet for a redundant population. I 
venture the assertion that the right of any number 
or class of Japanese to migrate to America was no part 
whatever of the issue there. The issue in Japan was 
whether the Japanese nation was to stand on an equal 
footing with Western powers, or to be cut off from 
the fellowship and be driven back upon a purely Ori- 
ental policy and theatre of operation. 

The methods pursued by Congress in passing the Im- 
migration Act were even more significant than the sub- 
stance of the Act. When, nearly half a century ago, 
Congress passed the first Chinese exclusion act, Presi- 
dent Hayes vetoed the bill and suggested, instead of 
hasty and drastic action on the part of the United 
States, a friendly conference with the Government at 
Peking, remarking in his veto message: “ This ancient 
Government, ruling a polite and sensitive people, dis- 
tinguished by a high sense of national pride, may 
properly desire an adjustment of their relations with 
us which would in all things confirm and in no way 
endanger the permanent peace and amity and growing 
commerce and prosperity which it has been the ob- 
ject and effort of our existing treaties to cherish and 
perpetuate.” So a commission of distinguished Ameri- 
can citizens was sent to Peking and in due course con- 


104 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


cluded a treaty sanctioning the limitation and suspen- 
sion of Chinese immigration to America, the United 
States to be the judge of the degree of necessity. The 
Japanese exclusion bill, on the other hand, paid no 
such deference to the partner affected by the action. 
Without any preliminary ceremonies, Congress brushed 
aside with a magnificent gesture an Agreement which 
Japan was endeavoring to fulfill, and slammed the door 
in the face of the Japanese nation, even of those Japa- 
nese who may wish to come here for a year or two 
to search out the excellent features of your civiliza- 
tion and commerce. Is it strange that the impression 
created in Japan by this action was painful, even ad- 
mitting that Congress was entirely within its legal 
rights? 

By a curious coincidence, the Immigration Act broke 
in upon the meditations of the Japanese people at 
a moment when the nation was bleeding from the 
wounds inflicted by the greatest calamity ever visited 
upon mankind by earthquake and fire. A tremendous 
amount of the national capital lay in utter ruin, more 
than two hundred thousand people had been killed by 
falling buildings or burnt to death in a raging whirl- 
wind of fire, industries were prostrate, vast regions 
devastated, and national economy subjected to awful 
strains at every point. In the midst of our afflictions, 
the nation that had literally shaken open our gate, 
introduced us to the family of nations, sent Chris- 
tian missionaries to teach us the ways of brotherhood 
and peace, and given us friendly counsel and advice 
at every turn, waived aside a long-standing agreement 
with us and slammed its own gate shut in our face. 


THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW 105 


It may be said that all this is mere sentiment. That 
is true. But sentiment is one of the great forces in the 
world with which statesmen must reckon. 

So I may summarize that immigration in itself was 
not a substantial element in the issue raised by the act 
of Congress, but that the methods by which the bill 
was passed and the circumstances amid which it was 
written upon the statute books, produced a profound 
and widespread impression throughout the length and 
breadth of Japan and brought in its train grave conse- 
quences. This does not mean, to repeat what I have 
already said, that any intelligent Japanese thinks for 
a moment of waging war upon America over a matter 
that is fundamentally domestic in character. It does 
not mean that the Japanese are going to boycott 
American goods on any large scale, or strike at com- 
merce between the two nations, or seek to disturb the 
existing friendly relations between the two govern- 
ments. It does mean that an explosive force has been 
lodged in the Japanese mind — an explosive force that 
those who seek ways of international peace and pro- 
gressive democracy in Japan will have to reckon with 
for decades to come. Who can fail to regret that 
troublesome forces have been stored up by processes 
that could have been avoided without crossing in the 
slightest the natural desire of the American govern- 
ment to preserve the integrity of American society 
and the standards of American labor? 

Still, as the good mariner always tries to take his 
reckonings, no matter how dim the stars, so I am under 
obligations to bring into the record all the outstand- 
ing facts which promise to help us in attaining the 


106 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


great object of unbroken peace between two countries 
that have nothing on earth to gain by an armed con- 
flict over any subject whatsoever. I refer to the peo- 
ples of the two countries, not to individual political 
merchants who supply munitions of war or ambitious 
concession-seekers who may make fortunes in Mon- 
golia, Manchuria, and Siberia. Now first among the 
outstanding facts in the present situation, is the un- 
precedented industrial progress of Japan since 1914 — 
industrial progress which inevitably makes her the 
formidable competitor with the other mercantile na- 
tions of the West in exploiting the mainland of Asia. It 
is likely that the competition will become keener and 
keener and that diplomatic incidents connected with 
the fight for markets will come thicker and faster. 
This means that Japan and America will have more 
knotty problems to solve in the future than in the old 
days when Japan had nothing but raw materials to 
sell and was a customer, not a competitor. It is in- 
conceivable that any one of these problems will be 
worth a harsh word, but in international affairs it fre- 
quently happens that the real cause of a dispute is 
utterly unknown to the majority who quarrel violently 
about some supposed issue. Every sentiment that in- 
terferes with the settlement of future controversies 
on their merits hampers the maintenance of cordial re- 
lations, is an undesirable impediment in the way of 
“getting down to brass tacks ”’ in discussing commer- 
cial disputes. While the fortunes of Russia and China 
remain unsettled and their place in the world remains 
anomalous, the issues arising between Japan and Amer- 
ica will be all the more perplexing, and their happy 


THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW 107 


solution will require unclouded minds and a high re- 
solve to allow no controversy to verge into an angry 
quarrel. 

The second outstanding element in the present situa- 
tion is the fact, if I may venture to be bold, that Japan 
will be a potent force in the destinies of the Orient, 
because she has capital, an industrial establishment, 
an army, and a navy. Are not these the outward 
signs of sovereignty that command respect in the coun- 
cils of the West? At all events they seem to have 
weight in the councils of the East. For a long time, 
there has been growing up in certain circles in Japan 
a philosophy of politics that would give Japan su- 
premacy in Oriental affairs similar to that enjoyed by 
the United States in this hemisphere. I do not say 
that this philosophy is right, but merely that it exists; 
and I am somewhat puzzled by its reception. May I 
ask what is the moral difference between the policy 
of America in extending her dominion over the Carib- 
bean and in protecting her capitalists in their Latin- 
American investments, and the policy of Japan in 
widening her sphere of empire in Asia and supporting 
her capitalists in their forward-looking enterprises? 
To my Oriental mind, there seems to be no moral dif- 
ference, but that may be due to my lack of acute pene- 
tration. Whatever the answer to this particular ques- 
tion, there remains an alternative policy —a policy 
sanctioned by enlightened liberalism, namely the policy 
of cooperation with one’s neighbors rather than ac- 
quisition and dominance. In any event, Japan will have 
undoubted influence in all the affairs of the Pacific; and 
by virtue of that fact, in all the conflicts and adjust- 


108 ; PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


ments arising among the powers now operating in that 
sphere. Japan therefore will be a factor to be reck- 
oned with in shifting balances of power, and all the 
periodical re-settlements of the European estate. 

Here I take leave of this delicate subject. ‘There is 
a large and powerful party in Japan that confidently 
expects the United States to challenge Japan’s eco- 
nomic advance on the mainland of Asia, and looks 
upon every measure directed against Japanese in 
America and possible immigrants as an evidence of 
enmity toward the Japanese nation. What America 
will ultimately do in the prosecution of her economic 
interests in Asia, I do not pretend to know. I con- 
fess to the belief that America’s actions with reference 
to immigrants and migration are not framed in a spirit 
of hostility to the Japanese nation. I say this in spite 
of the bitter anti-Japanese utterances to be found in 
certain newspapers, periodicals, and political orations. 
But is it strange that the methods pursued by the 
Congress of the United States in passing the exclusion 
bill should convince thousands of Japanese people that 
America has no confidence in the Japanese government, 
in its pledges and its integrity, and cares not a fig for 
its friendship or cooperation? I repeat, is it strange, 
especially in view of the fact that immigration was not 
in reality an issue in the case, —above all in view of 
the fact that the one and only issue was whether a 
controversy which had hitherto been dealt with in 
friendly cooperation — a controversy on which we al- 
ready had an amicable agreement — should find its 
ultimate solution at a council table or be bluntly and 
inexorably disposed of by one of the parties to the old 


THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW 109 


understanding? Let us admit, for the sake of argu- 
ment, that Japan has not the slightest claim upon the 
consideration of Congress; let us admit that it was a 
mistake for President Roosevelt ever to enter into the 
Gentlemen’s Agreement. The first fact remains, and 
it had sunk deeply into the consciousness of the Japa- 
nese people, that the vexatious issue was one that had 
once been adjusted in friendly cooperation and that 
could always be handled in the same spirit and in the 
same way; I repeat, for the wrong impression prevails 
in many quarters in America, the issue was not 1mmi- 
gration. As far as affording any outlet for the peasants 
and laborers of Japan is concerned that issue was 
closed years ago, and any additional guarantees re- 
quired for the security of American national life would 
have been gladly yielded. The sole issue was the 
method of handling an affair on which a friendly agree- 
ment already existed. To my Oriental mind the pro- 
cedure of Congress is inexplicable. But my personal 
opinion is unimportant. The grave consequences flow 
from the fact that it is now very difficult for any Japa- 
nese liberal to convince the conservatives and the na- 
tionalists that the process by which the immigration 
bill was passed was not intended to serve notice on 
Japan that she need expect no more cooperation from 
America, and that the ruthless pursuit of national in- 
terests without respect for the feelings of others is not a 
high and noble quality of patriotism. In saying this 
I am uttering no criticism of America. The grave 
consequences to which I refer will affect the social 
development of Japan far more than the destiny of 
America. 


110 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


As I have recorded in my previous lectures, there was 
growing up in Japan a liberalism that made for domes- 
tic reform and international codperation. The con- 
ditions of Japanese life made it difficult for that force 
to flourish, but it has been making remarkable gains in 
recent years. Those who gave their lives and risked 
their fortunes in that cause cherished a vision of a 
fortunate union of Western and Oriental values. 

The East and West had lived together and developed 
together from the dawn of history until the rise of 
the Saracens cut the world in two; and then the twain 
were forced to follow lonely paths separately. The 
nineteenth century opened a new era in bringing the 
East and West back again to a common ground of 
prosperity and fraternity. When the “Black Ships” 
of America lay at anchor at Uraga in 1846, Japan little 
dreamed what a new réle was soon to be given to her. 
Nor did America realize what destiny had in store for 
her. It was the meeting of the East and West after 
the separation of a thousand years. Without making 
any immodest boast, I may be permitted to say that 
Japan, because of her unbroken peace of three long cen- 
turles, was preserving and developing the essence of 
the Oriental civilization — Buddhism, Confucianism, 
Literature, Medicine, Mathematics, Arts, and Political 
Institutions. The precious heritage of thousands of 
generations in India and China was kept in sacred 
custody in Japan. 

When the gates were once opened, the new civiliza- 
tion of the West now rushed into Japan like an ava- 
lanche. From one end of the Empire to the other, 
Japanese minds were astir. Since the introduction of 


THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW Ab: 


Buddhism in the Sixth Century, the Japanese had 
never been so profoundly moved. They looked across 
the ocean and saw the great Republic of America, 
young and vigorous with new blood and new life. 
The civilization of Europe in all its different shades 
was converging on her, for America was certainly 
the melting pot of the Western culture and achieve- 
ment. 

Would the meeting of America and Japan open a new 
page in the progress of mankind? The hope ran high 
in Japanese minds. Sensitive and proud, the Japanese 
nation set her mind on the new role of amalgamat- 
ing the two civilizations. She introduced steam en- 
gines, telephones, the parliamentary system, labora- 
tories, and armaments. The occidentalization of Japan 
was fast taking place. Who can blame Japan for imi- 
tating the West? Is there any categorical difference 
between originality and imitation? Was not the great 
social heritage of mankind made possible by imitation 
among humanity? 

In fifty years Japan won three international wars 
and secured her political integrity. She revised her 
treaties with the Western powers and won back judi- 
cial independence and her right to control her own 
tariffs. She was admitted to the family of nations, and 
she felt that she was given a recognition as a sister and 
an equal. 

When the national calamity of September 1, 1923 
smote her down, the heart of the whole world reached 
out to Japan in sublime sympathy and gallant rescue. 
The American nation arose as one person and rushed 
to Japan with material and moral help. The heart of 


112 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


Japan was touched to the core. The emotion was too 
deep for words or tears. 

The American Ambassador, Mr. Cyrus E. Woods, 
was idolized, as a symbol of Japanese gratitude. When 
he was leaving Japan two months after the disaster, he 
was called upon by a Japanese, a stranger and ap- 
parently a man of no great means. This aged man ap- 
proached the Ambassador and, taking out of a paper a 
set of Japanese kimono, said, “My dear Ambassador, 
I am a poor citizen of Tokyo. My house was burned 
and I lost everything. At the time of despair, I read 
in the paper that your great country was coming to 
our rescue with such a generosity and sympathy. It 
went a thousand miles deep into my heart. I heard 
that you were returning home. I have nothing and 
I have no capacity whatsoever to express my grati- 
tude to your great people. I remembered, however, 
that I had one thing left uninjured by the fire. It is 
this kimono. I take this to you in order to thank you 
and your nation by giving up the last of my earthly 
possessions.” It moved the kind-hearted Ambassador. 
He could not speak. Tears stood in both men’s eyes. 
The hearts of the two nations thus beat as one. Cynics 
may call it sentimental. But sentiments very often 
carry farther than material interest. 

It is no wonder that the Japanese, particularly the 
old Japanese, are keeping America dear to their hearts. 
Brought up in the tradition of friendship and good 
will, they learned to respect and love America. Emer- 
son, Washington and Lincoln were household words in 
our country. The manifestation of sympathy after the 
earthquake was a climax of affection. 


THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW 113 


Then came the Immigration Act of 1924 so sud- 
denly. It was such an abrupt change that the Japa- 
nese could not at first grasp the meaning. It was unex- 
pected and it was incomprehensible. It seemed to 
some Japanese as though we were told that our place 
was not in the company of the world powers, and that 
all our past endeavors were thrown to the winds. Old 
Japan, however, stood unshaken in her confidence in 
American good will; but are you surprised, that young 
Japan lost its patience if not its faith? Young Japan 
was brought up in the new competitive age when 
the relationship of our two nations was not exactly 
the same as in the early years of the restoration. The 
Immigration Act naturally worked in no beneficial 
way. Here I think the great cause for future concern 
lies. Old Japan is the ruler of the present, but Young 
Japan is the ruler of the future. 

Just before I left Japan, a noted writer of Tokyo 
came out in a strong article, saying: “ Japan, turn your 
face to Asia. You have turned your back to Asia too 
long. It is in Asia that you will be warmly received 
as a friend.” Sympathetic friends will not fail to read 
in these lines a pathetic note of disappointment run- 
ning through the appeal. 

We never thought the greatness of real America lay 
in her material wealth or physical strength. There 
were many rich and powerful countries in ancient 
times; but they are all gone. They were as transitory 
as the great clouds that traverse their sepulchres. As 
permanent greatness is seen only in the sublimity of 
spirit and manifest in enduring forms of beauty and 
power, Japan’s ambition has always been to attain a 


114 PRESENT DAY JAPAN 


height of spiritual serenity. Japan looked and still looks 
to America as the torch-bearer of Western civilization 
— the emancipation of humanity and brotherhood of 
man. Will Japan’s hope be fulfilled? With wistful- 
ness and yearning Japan is watching the future de- 
velopments in American politics. We have not lost 
our faith. We are awaiting with breathless interest, the 
manifestation of American spirit, the traditional spirit 
of fair play and serene justice. 









COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
New YorRK 


FOREIGN AGENT 


HUMPHREY MILFORD 
AMEN Hovss, E.C. 
LONDON 






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